Lincoln in Indiana

DECEMBER, 1917

No. 4

INDIANA
MAGAZINE
OF HISTORY

CONTENTS

Page

Party in In-

Lincoln in Indiana — J. Edward Murr.-

The Origin and Rise of the Republican

diana From 1856 to 1860 (Con.)-

-Charles Zim-

merman . __ _ _ _

349

Index _______ _ ~ _

413 ;

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Copyright, 1917, by
Indiana University

INDIANA
MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Vol. XIII DECEMBER, 1917 No. 4

Lincoln in Indiana

By J. Edward Murr
Indiana Uncle and Cousins

"When I send a man to buy a horse for me I expect
him to tell me his points, and not the number of hairs in
his tail."

The removal of Josiah Lincoln, uncle of the President, to
Indiana was some four years prior to the admission of the
State into the Union. It appears that he, like many others
who lived in slave territory, hearing of the fine prospects in
the "Indian country to the north," joined the tide of emi-
grants coming up from the south, and with no particular
objective in view journeyed out into this wilderness, not know-
ing whither he went save that, in common with substantially
all of the pioneers, he did not stop until the great oak forests
in the hills were reached, where there was abundant, ever-
flowing springs of clear water.

The location chosen was in Harrison county, where, at the
little town of Corydon, was then located the seat of govern-
ment of the territory, which four years after his arrival be-
came the capital of the State. The land which he selected
was originally covered with a heavy growth of timber, was
well watered and doubtless was considered a good location
by the pioneer ; but it is now largely barren and comparatively
valueless.

Thomas Lincoln, the father of the President and younger
brother of Josiah, came on a visit to this section of the State

308 Indiana Magazine of History

a short while prior to his own removal from Kentucky to
Spencer county, Indiana. The inhabitants of the territory at
the time of Thomas Lincoln's visit were looking forward to
its early admission into the Union. It was while visiting his
brother that Thomas Lincoln decided to seek a home in the
wilderness of Indiana, making choice of a place a few miles
farther west.

Comparatively little is known of Josiah Lincoln. How-
ever, what is remembered possesses at least some value as
setting forth certain family traits. In personal appearance
he somewhat resembled his brother Thomas, being rather
rugged, compactly built, of dark complexion — as were all of
his descendants. Moreover, he had a broad, hearty laugh and
was given to story telling. The writer personally knew the
older descendants of Josiah Lincoln, as well as those of the
generation following.

All of the Lincolns in Indiana during the campaign of
1860 were Democrats and voted for Judge Douglas for Presi-
dent in preference to their illustrious kinsman, with the single
exception of Benjamin. He was early influenced politically and
otherwise by his mother's relatives, who were Republicans,
and this accounts for the support given to his relative rather
than any ties of consanguinity or mere family loyalty. More-
over, the larger portion of the younger Lincolns have ever
been and are now Democrats. Only one of this branch of the
family became a Civil war soldier, and he, Warden Lincoln,
having volunteered and been mustered into the ranks under
the excitement of the times, found occasion later, as claimed
by some of his relatives, to express regret at having enlisted,
but he made a good soldier, serving as a private. He had the
misfortune of being taken prisoner and for a time was in
Libby prison, but being later placed on Belle Isle, was ex-
changed and reached home. Doubtless, had it been known
by those in authority at the prison that he was a cousin of the
Abolitionist in the White House, he would not have been
granted his freedom.

Mordecai and Joseph, brothers of Warden, were drafted.
Mordecai, not desirous of personally serving, sent a substi-
tute, while Joseph, entertaining the same attitude in the

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana

309

Indiana in 1816. — From Thomas' Travels

310 Indiana Magazine of History

matter, and not being possessed of sufficient means to obtain
a substitute, took French leave, so his relatives assert, of
Indiana and succeeded in eluding the authorities by repairing
to the State of Illinois until after the close of hostilities. The
political attitude of these Lincolns toward their kinsman in
the White House, and their criticism of the conduct of the
war by the administration, were in keeping with the attitude
of many of their neighbors in southern Indiana, and indeed
of many throughout the entire North.

Southern Indiana and southern Illinois, both having been
very largely peopled from the South, it was not strange that
there was a large element whose sympathies were favorable
to the Southern Confederacy. But there were large numbers
in both States, many of them friends and supporters of Judge
Douglas, who were intensely loyal to the Union.

Illinois, however, was more fortunate than was Indiana
in one very important particular, in that General John A.
Logan, a Democrat up to the fall of Fort Sumter and for some
time thereafter, resided in that section of the State, and being
loyal to the flag wielded a salutary influence over his fol-
lowers.

The southern portion of Indiana did not possess a leader
of the prominence of Logan to turn the tide in favor of the
Union in this crisis. There is small wonder that the Knights
of the Golden Circle and kindred disloyal organizations flour-
ished. But notwithstanding this, the majority of the soldiers
who went out from first to last during the great war from
southern Indiana were Democrats.

The writer's father was a Douglas Democrat, casting his
vote for the "Little Giant" in preference to the "Railsplitter,"
and never manifested at any time any partiality for Lincoln.
While he saw no military service, being an invalid, three of
his brothers served the Union.

Practically all of the numerous descendants of Josiah
Lincoln were and are rather short of stature, maintaining to
the latest generation those characteristics manifested in their
progenitor and which may be said to be distinctively Lincoln
traits.

They almost uniformly have coarse black hair, dark eyes.

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 311

and somewhat given to humor which in certain instances has
been quite marked. For the most part they have been small
farmers, the exception being that two of them for a time,
like their cousin Abraham, attempted to keep a general store,
and it was attended with about as much success as was his
venture — "it winked out." One of the younger generation,
Joseph, the son of Mordecai, is an auctioneer, and he espe-
cially possesses some degree of wit and humor.

This branch of the President's family have always been
regarded by their neighbors as good citizens, possessing splen-
did neighborly qualities. All of them have been, and are poor,
yet honesty has ever characterized them. They have always
had the reputation of being peaceful and inoffensive, posses-
sing in substantially every instance a high sense of honor ; and
if any liberties were attempted with this, or intentional provo-
cation in any form given, it was met with a challenge to a
personal encounter. The absence of personal fear or coward-
ice is very marked among them and in certain ones there was
a venturesome spirit. The writer well recalls hearing "Mord"
Lincoln say: "My rule for fording Big Blue when she's on a
tear is : watch for the hosses' ears and as long as I c'n see 'em
I'm all right."

While none of the Indiana Lincolns possessed unusual
physical strength or marked mental ability, yet they were
generally hardy and rugged, and occasionally there was one
who in the common schools gave evidence of possessing more
than ordinary ability. However, their schooling has been
confined to the grades in substantially every case.

They have maintained certain family names, such as
Mordecai, Joseph, Thomas and Benjamin, but there has never
been an Abraham among them, and it is highly probable that
there never will be. It should be stated, however, that one
son of Warden, who served in the Union army during the Civil
war, is called "Abe," not by the family, but by his school-
mates and others merely as a nickname.

During the Civil war when there were those in this section
of the State accustomed to indulge in caustic criticism of the
administration at Washington in conducting the war and of
Mr. Lincoln in particular, calling him "the Black Abolitionist,"

312 Indiana Magazine of History

etc., none of his Indiana relatives resented this, and while they
did not agree with their kinsman in the White House politi-
cally, they refrained from indulging in the use of severe and
clearly objectionable personal remarks themselves. Yet they
were pleased rather than not when others pointed out mistakes
of the administration.

After the close of the war they assumed an attitude of
silence to the rising fame of the President, neither manifest-
ing pleasure nor indicating any displeasure, and this attitude
has been kept up to the present time ; so much so, in fact, that
in almost every instance when approached and engaged in
conversation concerning the Great Emancipator they assume a
listening attitude, apparently proud of the great fame of their
kinsman Abraham, but loath to say anything themselves. The
writer does not recall ever hearing an Indiana Lincoln indulge
in any language that could by any possible construction be
construed to mean a boast of his relationship to the President.

It may be said, therefore, that the attitude of this branch
of the Lincolns toward the President is that they are proud
of the fact that their kinsman became illustrious and made
for himself a great name, but they are in every case quite
content to look upon this in common with the millions, not
desirous at all of receiving any notoriety by reason of their
kinship to him. This rather exceptional disposition is not due
to any petty jealousy, certainly not attributable to ignorance
or any remnant of ante-bellum political prejudice, but is
rather due to a distinctive family trait so remarkable as to
be true of all of them ; that is, they possess a mingled modesty
and honesty which forbids undue personal exaltation or any
disposition whatever to reap where they have not sown.

The political predilections of the Indiana Lincolns is not
a thing to be regarded as at all strange or such as to occasion
wonder, since the earlier members of the family, including
Thomas, the father of the President, and even the President
himself, were all Democrats in politics originally. Before his
leaving Indiana for Illinois Abraham was a pronounced Jack-
sonian Democrat, priding himself in this, and John Hanks is
the authority for saying that he offered to whip a man( in
Illinois soon after their arrival in that State who was speaking

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 318

rather disparagingly of Jackson. So pronounced was Lin-
coln's attitude during the Adams and Jackson campaign that
some of the old pioneer friends recalled a couplet or two of a
song that "Abe" and Dennis Hanks were in the habit of
singing :

"Let aukl acquaintance be forgot.
And never brought to mind,
And Jackson be our President
And Adams left behind."

The manner of life of the older members of the Indiana
Lincolns, their personal appearance, their contentment and
indeed joy amid struggles with poverty, bear a marked simi-
larity to that of Thomas, the father of the President, so that
it may be said that their life was lived on a somewhat similar
plane to his. Although the location of the President's boyhood
home in Spencer county is but a few miles from where Josiah
Lincoln settled and where may still be found many of his
descendants, yet none of these has ever visited this section,
and not one of them was present on the occasion of the un-
veiling of the Nancy Hanks Lincoln monument in the year
1902. Likewise, none of these Indiana relatives has ever made
a pilgrimage to Springfield to see the grave of the President,
or gone to the nation's capitol.

If there is discerned in the President's paternal relatives
a reticence somewhat exceptional, as well as a disposition to
avoid any accusation of desiring to take advantage of or in any
way profit by the good fortune of a kinsman, it certainly
stands out in bold contrast to the behavior of all of his mater-
nal relatives, the Hankses, who straightway importuned Mr.
Lincoln to befriend them on his accession to the presidency,
a thing, however, which he failed to do. The Indiana branch
of the President's family never so much as wrote him a letter
or in any other way attempted to communicate with him for
any assistance looking to the liberation of Warden Lincoln
from a southern prison, where he was known to be undergoing
all of the usual discomforts of prison life, perhaps suffering-
some indignities by reason of his name and blood.

In seeking to account for Mr. Lincoln's greatness it is
therefore not at all necessary to resort to certain doubt-

314 Indiana Magazine of History

ful expedients or envelop his fame in mystery, as smoe
have been disposed to do. Such persons have gone to the
extreme of lightly esteeming both his maternal and paternal
ancestry, and have attributed his uncommon endowment to
the example and influence of his stepmother, Mrs. Sally Bush
Lincoln. Others, by reason of the obscure origin of his
mother, Nancy Hanks, have supposed that his greatness is
traceable to this source, and yet still others, going on the
theory that it was necessary to have a great ancestry in order
to account for such a remarkable man as was Mr. Lincoln,
eagerly sought to trace some connection with the noted Lin-
coln family of the East, and when it became apparent that
they were of common origin this was seized upon and became
all that in their estimation had hitherto been found wanting.
The proper attitude concerning the matter, it seems, would
be that Mr. Lincoln was indebted equally to both the Lincolns
and the Hankses for certain well-known traits of his charac-
ter, but since the Lincoln traits unquestionably predominated
in him and his connection with the Massachusetts Lincolns
has been established, the historian is relieved from the temp-
tation of overshadowing his life with certain elements of
mystery. For no matter what currents swept into his blood,
and whatever in his character may be attributable to these,
the fact remains that the President possessed those well-
marked family characteristics, both physical and mental, so
peculiar to the Lincolns.

Lincoln's Poverty

A friend came to him to borrow a "biled" shirt. "I
have only two," said Lincoln ; "the one I have just taken
off and the one I have on. Which will you take."

The elder Abraham Lincoln, father of Thomas, appears to
have been a man of passing wealth for that day. On his
reaching Kentucky from Virginia in the year 1780, he entered
on large tracts of land, and was apparently destined to pros-
per; but subjected as the pioneers were to the depredations
of marauding Indians, he fell a victim to these vindictive and
merciless foes in the year 1788. The story of the manner of
his death and some of the attendant circumstances have often
been related by biographers of his grandson.

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 315

This story was one of the legacies of pioneer days be-
queathed to his sons by Josiah Lincoln. This and other
stories, they allege, were often related by him about the fire-
side on winter evenings, describing somewhat in detail this
particularly tragic scene. He told of the father being shot
and killed from ambush by the bloodthirsty savages while he
was laboring in a clearing a short distance from the house,
accompanied by his three sons, Mordecai, himself, and
Thomas, the father of the President. When the shot was
fired and the father fell, both Mord and Josiah immediately
fled, Mord going to the house to secure a gun. Taking delib-
erate aim at an ornament on the breast of an Indian brave,
who, with uplifted tomahawk, was in the act of dispatching
his baby brother Thomas, he fired, killing him instanly.
Josiah having left his brother Mord to the protection of the
two sisters and his mother, ran for neighborly aid, which he
straightway procured, and on their return all the Indians had
departed, save a wounded one, who had crawled into the top
of a fallen tree. No quarter was shown to this unfortunate,
and while the circumstance produced in Mord such ungovern-
able hatred for the redskins as to cause him to slay them on
the least provocation, or no provocation at all, ever afterward,
yet it does not appear that it so affected either Thomas or
Josiah.

Although the elder Lincoln possessed large tracts of land,
yet the old law of primogeniture caused his entire estate to
pass into the hands of his eldest son, Mord, who, it appears,
did not in any way aid his brothers. He managed so poorly
as to possess but little more than either Josiah or Thomas on
the occasion of his removal from Kentucky, which date is not
certain, but is known to have been after approaching old age.

At the time of the father's death in the year 1788, Thomas,
the fourth child and youngest son, was ten years of age. Thus
left fatherless at the same age that his illustrious son was
bereft of a mother, he led a somewhat checkered career. He
became more or less a wanderer, for we catch glimpses of him
visiting and laboring as a "hired man" for his uncle Jacob
on a tributary of the Holston river in Tennessee; then in
Breckenridge county, Kentucky, where at one time he whipped

316 Indiana Magazine of History

a noted bully in "just three minutes," coming out of the
encounter without a scratch. In 1803", at the age of twenty-
five, he purchased a farm, and in the year 1806 he was in
Hardin county, learning the carpenter's trade with Joseph
Hanks. His vagrant and wandering career had given him a
plentiful supply of anecdotes and yarns, which it is said he
could tell very cleverly, and which was perhaps one of the
best, if not the only, trait ever certainly bequeathed by him
to his son Abraham.

The father of the President has been described by numer-
ous writers as being in person comparatively short and stout,
standing five feet, ten inches in his shoes. His hair was dark
and coarse, complexion brown, his face round and full, his
eyes gray, and his nose large and prominent. He weighed at
different times from one hundred and seventy to one hundred
and ninety-six pounds. He was so "tight and compact" that
Dennis Hanks declared, "he never could find the points of
separation between his ribs, though he felt for them often."
He was a little stoop-shouldered, and walked with a slow,
halting step. He was sinewy and brave, but his habitually
peaceable disposition once fairly overborne, he became a tre-
mendous man in a rough-and-tumble fight.

At the time of his marriage to Nancy Hanks, June 12th,
1806, Thomas Lincoln could neither read nor write, an accom-
plishment that his wife possessed, thereby causing her to be
esteemed and looked upon with more or less wonder by the
illiterate pioneers. This circumstance, by way of contrast
with her husband's deficiency in this and certain other things,
unfortunately caused many of her son's biographers, in at-
tempting to eulogize the wife and mother, to esteem lightly
whatever of excellence Thomas Lincoln possessed.

It has been the fashion of many of these biographers of
President Lincoln to speak disparagingly of his father, and
no word in any caricature of his supposed shortcomings has
been used more often than that of "shiftless." They have
accused him of improvidence ; made the occasion of his learn-
ing the carpenter's trade a mere pretext ; and refused to allow
that he was anything more than a pretender with tools after
actually learning the trade and doing more or less work. They

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 317

have found fault with his lack of ambition. They charge him
with inability to pay for a farm of some two hundred acres
which he purchased at the age of twenty-five years, three
years prior to his marriage. They have professed to see in
his three removals in Kentucky, his going from that State to
Indiana, thence to Illinois, and two or three changes of loca-
tion in that State, nothing but evidence of a confirmed
nomadic wanderer. These and many similar accusations
against him have been made from the first biography of his
son to the last.

When the governor of a certain State on one occasion
expostulated with his aged mother for granting certain indi-
gencies to his little son, she straightway admonished him by
saying: "When you, sir, shall have reared as good and great
a son as I have, then you may come to me with your theories
and they shall receive due and proper consideration, but not
before." So in like manner, when these ruthless, not to say
heartless, critics of Thomas Lincoln, the father of the Presi-
dent, shall take into consideration the fact that while he did
have certain defects of character, even to the point of being
actually shiftless, yet be it said to his everlasting credit that
no man since the world began has ever been father of such a
son.

It is submitted that for a boy fatherless at ten, "kicked
and cuffed about from pillar to post", with no money nor
influential friends, with absolutely no school advantages —
certainly not having the chance that his son had, and yet
accomplishing certain things — he deserves some credit at
least. He appears to have been steady enough and sufficiently
settled in life not only to learn a trade, but to become the
owner of a farm at twenty-five, which fact alone indicates at
Least that he had some native ability and force of character. It
is related that he possessed the best kit of carpenter's tools in
his county. He was regarded as a man possessed of sufficient
ability to warrant the civil authorities in appointing him road
surveyor or supervisor, which, while a position of no great
moment, meant something in the way of leadership and re-
sponsibility. When all these facts are taken into considera-
tion it must be said that Thomas Lincoln was a man of some

318 Indiana Magazine of History

ability, and certainly not deserving the treatment that he has
received at the hands of the biographers of his son.

Some time during the late summer of the year 1816
Thomas Lincoln built a raft on Rolling Fork of Salt river, on
which he loaded most of his effects, consisting of a tool chest,
a number of barrels of whiskey, and such other things as he
possessed, save a few lighter and more needful household
articles which his family would make use of in his absence.
He proceeded to make a journey down Salt river to the Ohio
and thence to Indiana, where he had decided to seek his for-
tunes in an effort to better his condition.

That the elder Lincoln was of a restless and roving dispo-
sition is beyond dispute, and his repeated removals "to better
his condition" to some extent justify the many charges of his
biographers of his being a mere wanderer and squatter. In
spite of the apparent justness of these accusations, most of
these proposed ventures promised well, and certainly in some
one or two instances there was abundant excuse for the ven-
ture made. We have the best of authority — his illustrious
son — for believing that he was actuated by good and suffi-
cient motives for his removal from Kentucky to Indiana ; and
it appears that no better reasons were ever offered by any
pioneer for a change of location than those in favor of Lin-
coln's removal from Indiana to Illinois in 1830. President
Lincoln, in discussing the reasons for their leaving the State
of Kentucky, said that it was "partly on account of slavery,
but chiefly on account of the difficulty in land titles in Ken-
tucky." It should be remembered also that for some seven
generations the family had been pioneers in as many States
or counties, and Thomas Lincoln was but manifesting the
same disposition that appears to have possessed his forbears.

Being a carpenter, it is to be presumed that the elder Lin-
coln had no difficulty in constructing a craft that under ordi-
nary circumstances would prove seaworthy. It is believed
that in view of the fact that he had made at least two flat-
boat trips down the Mississippi river to New Orleans, he was
a fairly good waterman. On this trip soon after entering the
Ohio from the mouth of Salt river his boat or raft capsized,
causing the loss of the larger part of his cargo. We are told,

Mutt: Lincoln in Indiana 319

however, that he succeeded in righting the raft, fishing up
some of the whisky and tools, and contenting himself as best
he could with the loss of the remainder, he continued his
journey, finally docking at Thompson's, now called Gage's
Landing, a short distance below the town of Troy, Indiana.
His reason for choosing Spencer county rather than settling
near his brother Josiah in Harrison county was largely due
to the fact that he was dependent upon the river for convey-
ance of his effects to a new location, and having "run the
river" he had some knowledge of this region where he event-
ually located.

After making his lonely journey and effecting a safe land-
ing at Thompson's, he placed his cargo under the care of a
settler by the name of Posey. Since this man preferred the
river front to the interior, and could make use of the boat, it
was sold to him, and the pioneer "struck out on foot" in the
wilderness in search of a new home. After going inland some
fifteen miles he met with a man by the name of Carter, with
whom he had more or less acquaintance. (Lincoln City is in
Carter township.) This circumstance seems to have largely
determined his choice of the location which he made in the
"midst of the bush". There were seven families residing in
this region when Thomas Lincoln made choice of his future
home.

The site chosen by Thomas Lincoln was admirable from
every standpoint save one, and that defect outweighed all of
the splendid advantages it otherwise possessed. It did not
have a never-failing spring; in fact, there was not at that
time any water on it. Later, as Dennis Hanks stated, "Tom
Lincoln riddled his land like a honey comb for water, but did
not succeed in finding it."

Although Lincoln proceeded to take possession of the quar-
ter section of land in true pioneer fashion by cutting and
piling brush at the corners, he became in fact a squatter until
the month of October, 1817, when he journeyed to Vincennes
and formally entered the land, although the patent was not
issued until June, 1827.

The site chosen for his "camp" was on a rather high knoll
sloping in every direction. In ten days after landing his craft

320 Indiana Magazine of History

at Posey's he announced that his "half faced camp" was ready
for occupancy, having in that time cut the poles or logs and
notched them, doubtless being assisted by Carter and others.
Crossing the Ohio, he walked back to the old home in Ken-
tucky— a distance of about one hundred miles — and securing
the friendly aid of his brother-in-law, who supplied him with
two horses, he took his little family, consisting of his wife,
his daughter Sarah, aged nine, and son Abraham, aged seven,
and "packed through to Posey's".

The town of Troy was at this time a place of some impor-
tance; indeed, of all those towns in the southern and western
portion of the State, it was second only to Vincennes in size.
In the year prior to the coming of the Lincolns a settler by
the name of Hoskins had been employed to blaze a trail from
Troy to the village of Darlington, the county-seat town to the
west, in order that "the mail carrier might not get lost". This
blazed trail passed through the region where Gentryville was
a little later laid out, and it was over this trail, a "bridle
path", that Thomas Lincoln moved his family and household
effects to his new home. A wagon had in some manner been
procured for this purpose, although such vehicles were not at
all common, for the first wagon brought to this part of the
State was by one John Small, a Kentuckian, in the year 1814.

After encountering considerable difficulty on account of
felling trees and the removal of logs, making their compara-
tively short journey of fifteen miles a very tedious and trying
one, they at length reached the half-faced camp. The time of
the arrival of the new "settlers" was during the last half of
the summer of 1816. At any rate, it appears that sufficient
time was left after their arrival to enable them to cultivate
"a few vegetables and a little corn."

The new home to which Thomas Lincoln took his little
family was a singular one indeed. As has been indicated, it
was made of small sapling logs or poles and had but three
sides closed, the fourth being left open, where a bonfire or
log heap was kept burning during cold weather, and not only
served to ward off the wintry blasts, but afforded the only
means they had for cooking. The little, one-room, pole cabin
was fourteen feet square, without windows, ceiling or floor,

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 321

and of course there was no necessity for a door. The house-
hold and kitchen furniture was only such in name. Aside
from a small amount of bedding, a Dutch oven, skillet and
some tinware, there was at first nothing with which to furnish
the home. A rude bedstead was constructed in one corner,
and in another corner a pile of leaves gathered from the sur-
rounding forest constituted the couch of the future President.

The woods surrounding the cabin furnished an abundant
harvest of wild grapes, crab apples (Johnny Appleseed had
unfortunately never reached this section), service (sarvis),
black and strawberries were quite plentiful.

The writer recalls hearing his grandmother (who came
from the South a short while after the coming of the Lin-
colns) tell of the abundance of wild strawberries in this re-
gion. They drove through acres of these berries, and so lux-
uriant were the vines and so plentiful the harvest that the
limbs and even portions of the body of a white horse were
discolored, as if the animal had waded in blood. There were
nuts of various sorts to be had in the forest, such as hickory,
pecan, hazel, and the white and black walnut. Moreover, the
virgin forest was a hunter's paradise, there being bears, deer
and choice wild fowls, such as turkeys, geese and ducks. In
addition to these, there were the smaller game birds and ani-
mals. Any undue amount of pity and sympathy bestowed on
pioneers dwelling in such a land of plenty is wrasted. While
not perhaps flowing with milk and honey, yet in so far as the
mere matter of supplying the larder was concerned it could
scarcely have been more highly favored. There is small
wonder that Dennis Hanks was moved to exclaim in his old
age, when recalling these years spent in Indiana : "I enjoyed
myself then more than I ever have since."

The first winter spent in Indiana was, so far as bodily
comfort was concerned, the most trying time in the life of the
future President, as he lived quite on the level, if not below,
that of thousands of slaves whom he afterward liberated.
With one side of their little cabin open to the elements and
the rebellious smoke again and again sweeping into the camp,
it furnished not only a striking contrast to the later life of
the President, but so far surpassing anything in history as to
leave little chance for a parallel.

322 Indiana Magazine of History

The elder Lincoln has been censured from first to last for
his failure to provide better accommodations not only during
the first year of his Indiana life, but is charged with continued
improvidence and neglect, being called lazy by many of the
biographers' of his son. It must be remembered in speaking
of Thomas Lincoln's poverty that while he was poor indeed,
yet poverty was quite the rule of all the pioneers of this early
period. Though it can not be claimed that he was especially
"work brittle" and ambitious enough to go out and seek labor,
yet he never avoided work offered. He seems to have rested
upon that passage of Scripture which says to let every day
provide for itself. Nevertheless, the writer failed to find
among his pioneer neighbors any charge that Thomas Lincoln,
and his son Abraham in particular, were "lazy". On the
contrary, it was asserted that while the elder Lincoln lacked
initiative, taking life quite easy, he was content if perchance
crops were abundant and labor to be had. When the morose
and gloomy made doleful prophecies as to a hard winter and
failure of crops, he was buoyant in spirit, optimistic, laughing
and even joking with his neighbors concerning their fears.
Although not regarded as a hard-working man for himself,
he made a "good hand for others" and was at work almost
continually.

So much has been said concerning the poverty of Lincoln's
youth that it is proposed here to examine the evidence from
an angle hitherto not taken. One of the boyhood friends of
Lincoln, Wesley Hall, some two years younger than the Presi-
dent, related a number of incidents concerning this period,
and one in particular bearing upon his poverty.

Wesley Hall's father was a Kentuckian who had moved
to Indiana, settling some four miles from the Lincoln cabin,
but reaching this section some time after the coming of the
Lincolns. The elder Hall was regarded as quite prosperous
for one in those days. Furnishing some justification for this
claim, he operated a tanyard, in addition to owning and culti-
vating a large farm, making shipments of leather by way of
the river to southern markets. This necessitated at certain
times the employment of a number of men, and he frequently
employed both the elder Lincoln, as well as his son Abraham.

Mutt: Lincoln in Indiana 323

On one occasion during the early winter Wesley Hall was
sent to mill beyond Gentryville, a short distance from the Lin-
coln cabin, but since the Halls lived to the east some four
miles it was more than a five miles' journey. According to
the pioneer custom, no favors were shown youth or age in
certain things, and the rule especially obtained in the matter
of going to mill, for each one had to "take his turn." Such
was the law.

Young Hall found upon his arrival on this occasion that
a number of men and boys had preceded him, and by the time
his turn came the entire day had almost passed. During the
last half of the afternoon a severe snow storm had set in, and
by the time the miller carried out his "grist" and assisted
him to mount preparatory to making the homeward journey
some inches of snow had fallen. This alarmed the pioneer
lad, lest some mishap should befall him and he should lose his
way through the forest, become a prey to wild animals, or
succumb to the cold. More especially was he so impressed
since nightfall was fast approaching and the snow was driving
furiously in his face. On reaching the turn in the road lead-
ing up to the Lincoln cabin he decided to go there for the
night. Riding up in front of the silent, snow-mantled house,
he hallooed in true pioneer fashion a time or two: "Hel-lo!
Hel-lo!" Just here it will be proper to permit Mr. Hall to tell
the remainder of his story:

Bye and bye I heard the door begin to creak on its wooden binges,
and then through the storm I saw old Tom a shadin' his eyes witb bis
hand a tryin' to see who I wuz. And purty soon, satisfying himself that
it wuz me, he leaned back and laughed a big broad laugb, and tben a
startin' out to where I wuz he says, says he: "Is that you Wesley? You
get down from thar and come in out of the weather." So I commenct to
git ready to slide off my sack and by the time I got ready to light, old
Tom wuz there and helped me down. Then a turnin' around lookin"
towards the cabin, he calls out a time or two, big and loud : "Abe ! O.
Abe ! Abe !" And he aint more'n called till I seen Abe a comin' through
the door, and when he asked what wuz wanted, and seem' who I wuz
at the same time, old Tom says: "Come out here and git Wesley's grist
while I put his hoss in the stable. Wesley's mighty nigh froze I reckon."
Then he laughed again. Well, I wuz cold I c'n tell you fer I hadn't had
anything to eat ceptin' parched corn since mornin'. Well, as I say, old Tom
told Abe to come and get my sack, and I noticed as Abe come out to

324 Indiana Magazine of History

where I wuz he hadn't but one shoe on, and thinks I to myself, what's
up with Abe fer I saw Abe wuz a walkin' on the ball of his heel so's
to hold his big toe up which wuz all tied up, and by this time I reckon
there wuz mighty nigh six inches of snow on the ground. Yit Abe's foot
wuz so big and long it didn't make no difference if the snow wuz that
deep. Abe hadn't any trouble about a keepin' his sore toe above the snow
line. When I asked him what wuz the matter with his foot he told me
he'd split his big toe open with an ax out in the clearjn' that day. Well,
Abe then wuz as big and stout as he ever wuz, and so he jest reached
over and took that sack of meal with one hand and layin' it across his
arm, him and me went into the house while old Tom put the boss in the
pole stable.

I set down in front of the fireplace and commenct to thaw out, and in
a little bit old Tom come in, and a settiu' down by me a slappin' his
hands together and then a rubbin' em so, like he alius' done, he says, says
he: "Wesley, you got purty cold I reckon, did you?" And when I
commenct to say I did, Mrs. Lincoln come in and she vsays, after we'd
passed the time of day, she says, says she : "Wesley, I reckon you're
hungry." And I told her I wuz; and then I told her about the parched
corn. And she says: "We haint got no meal to bake bread. We're opt
just now, but a poiutin' to the big bank of embers that I'd already
noticed in the fireplace and of course knowd what it meant, she says,
says she, "we've got some potatoes in thai* a bakin' and we'll git a bite
fer you purty soon." At that I spoke up and I says, says I : "Mrs.
Lincoln, jist help yerself out of my sack thai;." And so she done as I
told her.

Well, old Tom and Abe and me went on a talkin' and purty soon I
heard a funny grindin' noise back of me, and I looked around to see
what it wuz, and it wuz Mrs. Lincoln a hollerin' out a big turnip.

Just at this point in Mr. Hall's narrative he paused and
asked the writer if he could guess what Mrs. Lincoln was
"hollerin' out that turnip fer". When some two or three
attempts had been made to solve this mystery and all proved
to be clearly wrong, to the evident amusement of the old
gentleman, he resumed his narrative by saying:

She was makin' a grease lamp. Course I'd seen a many one. She
hollered it out and cut a small groove in it on the lip, and after she'd
filled it with hog's lard and laid a wick in the notch, and lit it, she
handed it to me, and a butcher knife to Abe, and she says: "Boys, go
and get me some bacon." So me and Abe went out to a little pole smoke
house and I held up the light while Abe cut a half moon out of a side of
bacon. So Mrs. Lincoln went on with gittin' supper, and bye and bye she
says: "Supper's ready." So when we set down to it we had corn

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 325

cakes, baked potatoes and friend bacon. After the supper dishes was
washed up old Torn, a slappin' his hands together and a rubbin' em like
I say, he says, says he : "Now, Abe, bring out your book and read fer us."
Old Tom couldn't read himself, but he wuz proud that Abe could, and
many a time he'd brag about how smart Abe wuz to the folks around
about. Well, Abe reached up on a shelf where he kept his books and
then a stirrin' up the fire on the hearth with some dry stuff he had piled
in one corner by the jamb, he commenced to read.

When the writer asked as to whether the narrator remem-
bered what book it was that Abe read from, he straightway-
replied :

Oh, yes ! It wuz the life of Ben Franklin. He read to us till bed time,
and that night Abe and me slept together up in the loft. We got up
there through a scuttle hole in one corner of the ceilin', and to git up to
it we had to climb up a peg ladder made by boring holes in the logs
and insertin' wooden pins. I remember the bedstid which of course I
saw many a time. It wuz a mighty sorry affair; still it answered the
purpose. A hole wuz bored in the north wall and a rail-like piece wuz
sloped off to fit this. The same thing wuz done on the west wall, and
these two rails wuz brought together and fastened in the same way to
an upright post out in the floor and then acrost these wuz laid split
boards or whipped plank, or some thin slats rived out, and on these wuz
a gunny sack filled with leaves gathered from the woods. On this Abe
and me slept covered with bear skins.

Lincoln's bedfellow on this snowy winter night lived to
see him in the White House.

Lincoln's Boyhood Associates

"Gold is good in its place, but loving, brave patriotic
men are better than gold. For my part I have striven,
and will strive to avoid placing any obstacle in the way.
So long as I have been here I have not willingly planted a
thorn in any man's bosom."

In the thousands of pamphlets and more extended notices
of the life of Abraham Lincoln there is, for the most part,
comparatively little said concerning the adolescent or forma-
tive period in his career. Because of the universal interest
in Mr. Lincoln's life, any contribution bearing upon any phase
of his career should be of interest and not wholly without
value. Nevertheless, it is true that there has been but meager
notice of his youth, since those who have undertaken this

326 Indiana Magazine of History

task possessed but little data, and thus in consequence the
conviction inevitably forced itself upon all that there was but
little that transpired during Mr. Lincoln's youth particularly
prophetic of the years that followed. In many instances,
therefore, the formative period in Mr. Lincoln's life has been,
in consequence of the meagerness of knowledge and reliable
data, dismissed as being commonplace. Professing to see
nothing exceptional during these formative years, his biog-
raphers in many instances have passed on to the days of his
early manhood, and sought to call attention to what they
regard the real beginnings of his remarkable career. In
doing so, in their unwarranted haste to pass to the scenes of
his public career, they do not fail to quote the well-known
lines of the poet which Mr. Lincoln was accustomed to apply
to himself: "My life was but the short and simple annals of
the poor," as if this would prove a sufficient refutation of any
charge of meager notice of the years prior to the day of his
appearing on the prairies of Illinois. To put it in another
way, the Lincoln admirers have been made to believe that he
was a Hoosier prodigal who came to himself about the time,
or soon, after, reaching the State of Illinois ; and at this time,
or subsequent to it, there were certain super-added things
affixed to his character that made for honesty, truthfulness,
and fixity of purpose.

The fact of Mr. Lincoln's honesty, which was so prominent
in his later life, is not doubted for a moment, but since sub-
stantially all the recorded instances of this trait of his char-
acter found their setting in some event in later life, there is
a belief that this trait was not particularly noted in his early
career, or if so, it was not sufficiently prominent to call forth
especial attention ; whereas, all of his early associates inter-
viewed by the writer stated that this was quite marked, and
so much so as to cause them to remember him by it.

The writer is convinced, by reason of some years' resi-
dence among the early associates of the great war President,
that the boy Lincoln was father of the man. We are indebted
to the many biographers of Mr. Lincoln for so many things,
and to some of these in particular, it would be something
approaching sacrilege, for one now at this late day, to even

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 327

appear to take any liberties with any long established beliefs
concerning our martyred President. Happily this does not
appear to be necessary. But however well meant the efforts
were on the part of these numerous historians touching Mr.
Lincoln's early career, unfortunately they have succeeded in
focusing the gaze of the world either upon the spot in the
State of Kentucky that gave him birth, or upon the prairies
of Illinois where he took his rise to fame, and where his ashes
now rest. TJiose years in his life which he spent in Indiana —
from seven to twenty-one — which ordinarily make a period
in the life of most men of momentous importance, have been
more or less neglected. To undertake at this late day the task
of correcting the perspective of the Lincoln admirers by
focusing the attention upon his youth is an exceedingly diffi-
cult one, and ordinarily would prove discouraging, but since
it is believed that sufficient data is at hand to substantiate
the claim, the task has been undertaken with a view at least
of supplementing the work of recognized authorities in this
field, as well as rendering tardy justice to Lincoln's youth.

It is to be regretted that some of the earlier biographers
of Mr. Lincoln did not make a greater effort to collect infor-
mation touching his youth, since the field was at that time
white unto harvest; particularly soon after the death of the
President, at which time some two or three biographers came
to visit the scenes of Mr. Lincoln's boyhood and young man-
hood in Spencer county, Indiana. Some of the more recent
writers met with experiences well calculated to discourage
further effort in this field, since they possessed erroneous no-
tions of Hoosier manners and customs. In consequence of
this handicap some very amusing, not to say ludicrous, things
transpired during attempted interviews with certain ones of
Lincoln's old associates. Many of the historians in speaking
of the citizens now residing in the region where Gentryville
is located, regarded them as quite below the average; charac-
terizing them as "listless", "poor", "free and easy", "devoid
of ambition", and reference has been made to the "antiquated
business methods", "dog-fennel streets" and with many other
such statements they seem to pay a tribute to the wisdom and
foresight of the Lincolns in having the good sense to leave

328 Indiana Magazine of History

that region, since the country and its inhabitants at the pres-
ent time do not meet with their approbation.

That there is apparent justification for such a character-
ization of both the inhabitants of that section today, as well
as the region itself, is quite true, and perhaps this would more
especially appear so to strangers, although it may be permis-
sible to suggest that these allegations are particularly in bad
taste relative to the country itself, since they were made by
those who happen to reside in that section of the United
States where abandoned farms are the rule, whereas there are
few abandoned farms in Spencer county, Indiana. Appear-
ances are often woefully deceptive, and it is believed that a
better knowledge of Hoosier manners and customs, particu-
larly among the pioneers, would in itself serve a splendid
corrective in certain things.

It may be true that Gentryville and Lincoln City are "dog-
fennel towns", yet there are several hundreds like them in
Indiana. Gentryville is much the same place that it was dur-
ing the boyhood of Lincoln. One may still see the Saturday
group of loungers seated on dry goods boxes, whittling and
chewing favorite brands of tobacco, and "swapping yarns",
from which point of vantage they gaze betimes down the little
streets to the barren knolls in the distance. The scene is com-
mon and to be met with not only in this section of the State
of Indiana, but in certain portions of Kentucky and Illinois.
Such scenes are not particularly inspiring, and are not calcu-
lated to impress a visiting stranger with the belief that from
such an environment there would come forth any youth who
could by any possibility rise to fame; yet, nevertheless, just
such places have produced, and may yet be destined to pro-
duce, some of our most eminent men. Some two or three
incidents and circumstances are here related that occurred
within the Lincoln zone, all of them of comparatively recent
date and coming under the personal observation of the writer.

A man with long gray locks, somewhat loose and dishev-
eled, was seated in the witness chair in the circuit court. It
was during the month of January, and the weather was cold.
He wore a pair of "eastern" boots whose heels had a predi-
lection for rolling over and upward as if in sport of one

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 329

another. His "foxed" trousers were baggy and tattered, and
whether the bottoms were too badly worn for service or
whether it was merely a habit of the owner, no matter ; in any
case they were crowded down into the boot tops. A faded
brown hand-me-down overcoat, held to its moorings by a bit
of binder-twine looped through the torn buttonhole and about
the button, served to' keep out the cold, this being the only
outer garment worn over a shirt not too immaculate. On his
knees rested a somewhat dilapidated hickory-straw hat, with
the preponderance of evidence in favor of its having done
service for at least two summers and certainly until far into
mid- winter.

An attorney (now holding a government position of na-
tional importance) from a distance, with evident precon-
ceived notions concerning the old gentleman, was cross-exam-
ining the witness.

"Mr. Witness, can you read and write?"

"No, sir."

"You spoke of the payment of taxes" (resting his eyes
for a moment upon the boots). "Do you own property?"

"Well, yes, sir."

"Now then, just state to the jury what your holdings con-
sist of, whether real estate, etc., etc."

"Well," began the witness, looking down as if greatly em-
barrassed, "well, I own a leetle land in this county and some
in the county a-jinen."

"You own a little land, you say, in this and the adjoining
county?" (Another glance at the boots, which on taking its
leave swept past the straw hat and then fixed itself stead-
fastly upon the apparently disconcerted face of the witness.)

"Now, sir, just tell the jury about how much land you
own."

"Well," still looking down, "well, sir, I've got a leetle the
rise of three thousand acres here in this county, and some time
back I got hold of a leetle jag of money, and not havin' any
place jest then to put it, I bought a few hundred acres over
in tother county. Besides what leetle land I own, and a few
hundred head of cattle, horses and sheep, I've off and on ever
now and then been loanin' a leetle money an' ginerally took

030 Indiana Magazine of History

mortgages on land, so I've got plasters you might say,
moimtin' to nigh on to right about $30,000 or better, and I've

got government"

'•That will do, Mr. Witness, that will do."

The witness here referred to was about the same age as
Lincoln and lived but a few miles from Gentryville. The
writer was present on the occasion referred to, and remem-
bers the chagrin and crestfallen air depicted upon the coun-
tenance of the imported attorney, and furthermore he re-
calls the apologetic remarks subsequently made by the attor-
ney, he being more especially induced to do this on learning
that the witness was not only a fine type of old fashioned hon-
esty and truthfulness, but was the wealthiest man in the
county.

The old gentleman was not a miser nor yet miserly. He
merely continued the habits and customs of the pioneer days.
His dress as above described, which is not in the least ex-
aggerated, was subject to a marked change on Sunday; that
is to say, the soiled linen was replaced by a garment des-
tined to do duty until the next Sabbath. With slight varia-
tion in the matter of dress — on the whole somewhat better —
but in all other points essentially the same, the foregoing
description would be that of the father of a man born in this
region during the Civil war, who today occupies a chair in
one of the great universities of our country.

A case was being tried in the Federal court. A number
of witnesses were subpoenaed, among them being an elderly
man with a snow-white crescent encircling his chin. His
shoes, originally black, were now brown. He wore no such
conventional apparel as a collar or necktie, and his clothing
otherwise was not at all pretentious.- He had spent most of
his life in the school room, and was quite generally addressed
by all classes of citizens in this Lincoln country as "Pro-
fessor," and being well known to the officer of the court he
very naturally in calling the witness thus addressed him. An
attorney, thinking to make capital out of this circumstance,
especially since he noted the character of his dress, began his
examination of the witness by requesting to know why he
was called "professor."

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 331

"I do not know, sir, why I am thus so regarded and so
addressed, for I make no claim whatever to that honorable
title. It is true that I have been a teacher for some time, in
fact nearly all my life ; but I do not suppose that I am at all
entitled to such consideration."

The attorney, not yet satisfied, pursued the matter fur-
ther.

"Well, professor, you are a graduate of course, and can
doubtless read Latin." (not at all supposing that the witness
was a graduate nor possessing such knowledge as the ques-
tion implied.)

"Yes, sir," replied the professor, "Yes, sir, I am a gradu-
ate of our State University, and in obedience to your desire
to know whether I possess ability sufficient to enable me to
read Latin I should say that in addition to my mother tongue
I speak French and German rather fluently, Spanish only
indifferently well, but I read Hebrew, Latin, Sanscrit and
Greek quite well. Indeed, I have even been told by those who
have manifested a decided partiality for me that I could have
been a linguist had I taken up this study, say at your time of
life, but I attribute this great claim of my friends to some
little acts of kindness which I have rendered them from time
to time through a somewhat lengthened life, rather than to
any real excellence that I may possess."

It was within a half dozen miles of Gentryville that a
stranger was impertinent enough to ask an old Hoosier who
had an extraordinarily large-sized nose: "How does it happen
that you have such a big nose?"

"I kept it out of other people's business, sir, and let it
get its growth."

As an aid to credulity and at the same time serving in part
at least as a fair excuse for the treatment here offered, it
may be stated that the writer was born among and reared
with later generations of the Lincolns.

It does not appear to be generally known that all three
sons of the elder Abraham Lincoln, grandfather of the Presi-
dent, eventually emigrated to Indiana. The first to come was
Josiah, the second son, who settled on Big Blue river, in
Harrison county, Indiana. This was in the year 1812. To

332 Indiana Magazine of History

this wilderness home came Thomas Lincoln, father of the
President, on a visit, and in part at least his removal from
Kentucky to Indiana a little later, in the year 1816, was due
to the persuasions of his brother, Josiah. His reasons for
leaving Kentucky are given elsewhere in this narrative, but
on deciding to leave Kentucky he was induced by his brother
to try his fortunes in the new State north of the Ohio river.

The writer's forbears came up from the South to this sec-
tion of Indiana, also settling in Harrison county, and were
neighbors to Josiah Lincoln. Thus the writer grew to man-
hood with the descendants of the uncle of the President.

Later the writer resided for some years in that region
where the future President spent his childhood and boyhood,
and attained his majority. Here he personally knew a num-
ber of Mr. Lincoln's boyhood and girlhood friends and asso-
ciates. Repeated interviews were obtained with these pio-
neers, some of whom up to that time had never so much as
been interviewed by a newspaper reporter, much less by any
of the biographers of Mr. Lincoln. It may be said, however,
that this latter statement, apparently incredible, is to some
extent accounted for by reason of the fact that these in par-
ticular had removed from the Spencer county home to other
points in the State, and in one or two instances to other
States.

Some of these boyhood friends of Lincoln here referred to
were parishioners of the writer or were members of his
congregation, and in a few instances he officiated at their
funerals and the funerals of members of their families.

It is believed that much confirmatory information was ob-
tained from quite a number of the older citizens, who, while
being mere children during the residence of the Lincolns in
Spencer county, yet being children of the neighbors of the
Lincolns and accustomed to hear the fireside discussions con-
cerning the great President, especially after his rise to fame,
what they related was in certain instances quite as valuable
and trustworthy, and perhaps in an instance or two even
more so, than was that offered by some who spoke from per-
sonal knowledge.

With no well-defined purpose of ever making any use of

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 333

the data obtained, beyond personal gratification, having been
reared a Democrat in the belief that Douglas was transcend-
ently great as compared to Lincoln, and having had a gradual
political "conversion" my interest in Lincoln grew accord-
ingly. Much time was thus pleasantly spent in interviewing
those who either personally knew Lincoln as a boy, or those
who were mere children during his stay in Indiana, or those
who were born about the time of his leaving the State in the
year 1830.

Considerable care has been exercised to distinguish be-
tween matter of fact truth and mere tradition. Of this latter
there was considerable and occasionally there was an inter-
mingling af fact and tradition. The traditions in every case
came but little short of well established facts, and some of
these were quite as interesting and suggestive as any state-
ment based upon personal knowledge.

The mooted question as to the President's maternal an-
cestry was altogether in favor of the position taken by almost
all of his earlier biographers, particularly by Herndon. With
no desire whatever of attempting to reopen a discussion that
appears to be closed, a statement or two is made. In every
case when Lincoln's pioneer neighbors were asked as to the
obscure origin of Nancy Hanks, the reply was invariably the
same — that she was the daughter of Lucy Hanks, and a Vir-
ginian.

On one occasion after the writer had delivered a lecture on
Lincoln in the region where the President had lived as a boy,
and having some of Lincoln's old friends in the audience, he
was approached by a rather elderly lady who requested an
interview on the following day. This was gladly granted.
After some questions as to what "the books said concerning
the origin of Nancy Hanks," the following statement was
made:

I am the daughter of a woman who was about the same age as
Lincoln and lived neighbors to the Liucolns both in Kentucky and in
Indiana. My grandmother and Nancy Hanks were girl friends, and my
grandmother often told me that she was present at the birth of President
Lincoln. I've heard both my mother and grandmother tell many inci-
dents concerning Nancy Hanks and the Liucolns and Abraham in par-
ticular. As to Nancy Hanks' origin I've heard my grandmother say again

334 Indiana Magazine of History

and again that Lincoln's mother was a fine lady and wasn't to be blamed
for some things; that she was the daughter of Lucy Hanks and some
unknown man in Virginia. My mother said that was what the older
people told her, and no one ever said anything to the contrary.

Inquiry was made as to the reliability of the testimony
offered, and it not only appeared abundantly trustworthy,
but was corroborated by the statement of others. In no
case among the pioneers was there a disposition to accept
any other story relative to the origin of Lincoln's mother.
That Mr. Lincoln himself held to this belief concerning his
mother is certainly true. Herndon, Life of Lincoln states:

Beyond the fact that he (Lincoln) was born on the 12th day of
February, 1809, in Hardin county, Kentucky, Mr. Lincoln usually had but
little to say of himself, the lives of his parents, or the history of the
family before their removal to Indiana. If he mentioned the subject
at all it was with great reluctance and significant reserve. There was
something about his origin he never cared to dwell upon.

Herndon further asserts that on one occasion while he and
Lincoln were driving across the prairie in a buggy the state-
ment was made to Herndon by Lincoln that his mother, Nancy
Hanks, was the daughter of Lucy Hanks and a well-bred but
obscure Virginia planter or farmer. He argued that from
this last source came his power of analysis, his logic, his men-
tal activity, his ambition and all the qualities that distin-
guished him from the other members and descendants of the
Hanks family.

A biography of Lincoln was prepared by Mr. Scripps for
campaign purposes. Lincoln was asked to submit data for
this, which he rather reluctantly did. In a letter to Herndon
after Lincoln's death Scripps stated:

He (Lincoln) communicated some facts to me concerning his ancestry
which he did not wish to have published then, and which I have never
spoken of or alluded to before.

What these facts were we of course do not know, but pre-
sumably they must have had to do with this obscurity. Den-
nis Hanks, a son of Nancy Hanks, aunt of the mother of
Lincoln, was ever insistent that the mother of President Lin-
coln was named Sparrow instead of Hanks. Certain it is

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 335

that both she and Dennis Hanks were for a time in the home
of the Sparrows, who, after the marriage of Nancy to Thomas
Lincoln and her removal to Indiana, also removed to that
State, taking the irrepressible Dennis with them. It was
these Sparrows who occupied the half-faced camp abandoned
by the Lincolns, and when seized with milk-sick were re-
moved to the Lincoln cabin and both died there. Their deaths
took place at the same time as that of Lincoln's mother.

It is passing strange that these pioneers should all be of
one mind concerning the obscure origin of Nancy Hanks if
there was no foundation for such belief.

However reliable may be the statements of discoveries
made by Mrs. Hitchcock, a descendant of the Hanks family,
relative to the origin of the President's mother, there never
was, and is not now, just ground for any accusation against
these pioneer neighbors of the Lincolns for entertaining and
freely expressing the belief, since it was indisputably credited
by her illustrious son, and by the elder Hankses and others
whose testimony is a matter of record.

Manners and Customs of the Hoosier Pioneers.

"Quarrel not at all. Yield larger things to which you
can show no more than equal right ; and yield lesser ones
though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog
than be bitten by him in contending for the right. Even
killing the dog would not cure the bite."

A proper understanding of the manners and customs of
the pioneers of Lincoln's youth and young manhood is essen-
tial to appreciate some qualities of his mind and peculiarities
of belief and practice which appeared when later he was asso-
ciated with the learned and skillfully trained statesman and
politicians, who were for the most part reared under an alto-
gether different environment. The pioneer was more or less
given to superstitious beliefs and committed to the trust-
worthiness of tokens and dreams. While this characterized
substantially all classes during the formative period of our
country, yet these strange and weird beliefs in particular

336 Indiana Magazine of History

found a congenial abiding place in the minds of the pioneers
who came from the South and settled in this wilderness. In-
deed, the belief in the efficacy of tokens and dreams, and the
faithfulness and almost religious zeal with which signs have
been observed have ever characterized the frontier line.

These strange beliefs inevitably begot still stranger cus-
toms. This was especially true of the people in and about
Gentryville. If in this section there may yet be found some
of those strange beliefs still lingering among those of that
earlier period, it need not be regarded as strange, since in
other centuries the will of the Almighty was determined by
the presence or absence of dew upon a sheep's pelt, and king-
doms were lost or won by the casting of lots. It may well
be doubted whether there is not yet clinging to most of us,
like barnacles upon a ship's hull, some of the age-long beliefs
of our fathers. While we are living with the light beating
full upon our faces, yet there is discerned in some an indica-
tion that these fireside memories and nursery teachings of
that dim and distant past so possess us as to lead to the con-
clusion that it would not at all be difficult to revert to the prac-
tices and beliefs of other years. Bishop Matthew Simpson,
one of the greatest forensic orators of his time, and an edu-
cator of national prominence, himself a pioneer and a great
friend and confidential adviser of Lincoln, ever felt a strange
and unaccountable pleasure and delight on seeing the new
moon over his left shoulder. A certain United States senator
from Lincoln's boyhood state on more than one occasion in
the midst of political campaigns refused to ride in a carriage
drawn by black horses.

Abraham Lincoln was so indoctrinated with many of these
beliefs during his youth that they clung to him until the day
of his death. He always believed in the trustworthiness of
dreams, one of which in particular was viewed as a good
omen, because he dreamed it prior to the victories of Antie-
tam, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, the naval battle between the
Monitor and the Merrimac, as well as just before the sur-
render at Appomattox. This dream and others he with a
strange simplicity related to cabinets, and doubtless in the
very simplicity of his belief failed to realize that these gen-

Mutt: Lincoln in Indiana 337

tlemen viewed such as exceptional, if not indicating a decided
weakness.

Advantage is taken of the opportunity here of calling at-
tention to a fact not especially enlarged upon by any, yet
which is patent and known to all ; that is, we do not take lib-
erties with Lincoln as we do with many other great men. We
laugh with him, but we do not suffer any criticism of him
without registering a vigorous protest. This is not even true
of Washington.

To the pioneer in Lincoln's day the carrying of an edged
tool, such as a hoe or ax, through the house was an omen of
bad luck, foretelling a death in the family during the year.
The breaking of a mirror was also another sign of death with-
in that period. The plaintive howling of a dog meant that
the morrow would tell of a death somewhere. The cross-
ing of the hunter's path by a dog meant bad luck in the chase
unless the hunter locked his little fingers until the dog was
out of sight; or, what was regarded as better still, if he
returned to the point of starting and began his journey anew,
all ill fortune occasioned by the bad start would not be reck-
oned against him. The writer has frequently witnessed these
circumstances.

Friday was a day in the calendar to be avoided in insti-
tuting any new departure ; that is to say, beginning anything
new such as plowing, sowing or reaping in the fields, or the
making of a garment, unless the labor could be completetd
during the day. A bird alighting on the window or coming
into the house was a sure sign of sorrow. All planting, sow-
ing, fencing and preparation for the same was to be governed
by certain signs of the moon. Plants, such as potatoes, ma-
turing beneath the surface of the soil must be planted in the
dark of the moon. And in like manner tomatoes and beans
must be planted in the light of the moon.

Clapboards on the roofs of buildings would cup and curl
if the sign was not right. The fence would settle and sink
or creel if there was a failure to consult the almanac for the
proper sign. They believed in witches of various sorts, quite
as much as they of New England ever did. Although there
was no disposition to burn them, they were feared and

338 Indiana Magazine of History

guarded against. They especially believed that some evil-
disposed old witch could work evil upon a child.

The writer has a distinct child's recollection of being
caught up from his innocent play into the arms of a fright-
ened lady and hurriedly carried away to a point of supposed
safety from a reputed old witch who it was presumed was
working her spell over him preparatory to actually bewitch-
ing him. It is not believed that this old witch in reality suc-
ceeded in her efforts at this time or at any subsequent period,
but the writer frankly confesses that while he escaped all of
the influences and beliefs so generally prevalent in his youth,
nevertheless he finds more satisfaction and contentedness than
do some if there is never a hoe or an ax carried through his
house. Truly the beliefs of our grandmothers live after them.

Although there was no physician nearer than thirty miles
to the Lincoln home, yet this settlement had a "Doctor" of a
doubtful sort, one "Cy" (Josiah) Crawford, for whom Lin-
coln and his sister Sarah often labored as "hired man and
girl." "Cy," or "Old Blue Nose" Crawford as Lincoln later
named him, was what was usually spoken of as a "yarb and
root" doctor. As a diagnostician he doubtless did not excel,
but it was small matter since his prescriptions were few and
generally harmless, even if sometimes unpleasant to take.
If there was evidence of inflamation, "a counter-irritant was
slapped on," and generally "a heroic old fashioned Baptist
foot washing," was urged just before the hour of retiring.
Blue mass pills were used on the least provocation, although if
these were not to be had a substitute was suggested. The
writer recalls one instance when "shoemaker's wax" was in
an emergency made into plaster and the patient lived to praise
his saviour, if not his remedy in his effort to remove the
same. Crawford, in lieu of there not being even a traveling
dentist, was an extractor of teeth. Heroic methods were used
for a time, but his services being so much in demand he ob-
tained a "twister" pair of forceps, and thereafter the surgery
was more scientifically performed. A conversation with some
who sat under his "prying, twisting and gouging" revealed
the fact that laughing gas would have been more than wel-
comed.

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 339

Since bleeding was quite generally practiced in that day
by reputable physicians, Crawford, always abreast with the
times, obtained a lancet and thus added this accomplishment
to his practice. Generally speaking, every settlement had a
man or woman who could stop bleeding in cases where a vein
or artery had been severed, without resorting to the barbar-
ous practice of ligating or cauterizing. This was done by
pronouncing certain cabalistic words. The secret of possess-
ing such power was on no account to be conveyed to another
unless under proper direction and orderly procedure. A man
was forbidden, on penalty of losing his skill, to convey to his
brother the secret, but he might with perfect safety admit a
woman into the secret, and she in turn could with equal safety
initiate a man. At the perilous risk of losing forever what-
ever cunning and skill the writer may possess in this regard,
he dares here to put it to a test by indiscriminately publishing
the secret. It will be at once apparent that this conveyance
is only possible to ladies. The remedy is simplicity itself, and
consists in thrice repeating the sixth verse of the sixteenth
chapter of the Prophecy of Ezekiel.

Faith doctors were implicitly believed in. Long journeys
were made to them, their charms invoked and their skill put
to a test. In substantially every case these men behaved
something after the manner that Captain Naaman supposed
the prophet Elisha would have done in his case. They refused
to make any charge for services rendered, but if exceedingly
provoked by some who were the beneficiaries of their healing
powers, they suffered them, on taking their departure, to
leave a token of their appreciation as a thank offering.

There was a commendable reciprocity of neighborliness
prevailing among the pioneers. Much of their work was
shared in common, particularly such as raisings, huskings and
rollings. Associated with these labors by the men, which may
not inappropriately be styled field sports, the women of
the entire neighborhood assembled to prepare the sumptuous
feasts consisting of venison, turkey, pigeon potpie, hominy
and corn-dodger.

Spinning contests were indulged in and the hand-made
loom was much in vogue, and if there chanced to be the fin-

340 Indiana Magazine of History

ishing of a blanket or coverlet, or in some instances a quilt,
all the young ladies — and some not so young — would surround
this, holding on with both hands, while some one from the
crowd of men who were interested onlookers would throw
puss, the now thoroughly frightened house cat, into the bag-
ging center. Well might there be manifest interest, for who
could tell which way a cat might jump under such circum-
stances and thus indicate the next bride?

Play parties and dancing (hoe-downs) were much in favor,
and the mere announcement of a neighbrhood wedding meant
an invitation for all to attend who cared to do so. Spelling
matches were held every Friday night during the school term,
and schoolhouse debates invariably attracted large crowds.
Old time school exhibitions, where dialogues were recited and
"pieces" declaimed, were frequent. Sometimes these were
weeks in preparation and the program so lengthy as to last
half the night. Religious services prior to 1820 were con-
ducted in private homes, usually by some chance itinerant
preacher. Lincoln never saw a church until he was eleven
years of age, and he helped in its erection.

The dress of the pioneer would appear quite as strange to
us as some of the modern fashions would have been to him.
No woolens were worn in and about Gentryville until the year
1824. Buckskin breeches, sewed with whang, thus making an
ornamental fringe, a loose-fitting blouse, and a coonskin cap
with the tail hanging down was the usual garb of the. men.
This was Lincoln's dress during his entire Indiana residence,
save that he managed in some manner to get possession of a
white shirt a short while before his removal to Illinois.

In all of these farm and community labors, social gather-
ings, exhibitions and religious worship Lincoln was a familiar
figure. He particularly enjoyed the schoolhouse debates and
exhibitions. The Kentucky Preceptor furnished the major
portion of the declamations, as well as subjects or themes for
debate. Some of these latter which were debated by young
Lincoln and others were: "Resolved, That fire is more de-
structive than water." "Who has the greater right to complain,
the negro or the Indian?" Such themes were very gravely
discussed not only by the younger generation, but by the older

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 341

men as well. It is said that young Lincoln in these debates
was calm, logical and clear. He, however, often became quite
humorous, causing great laughter by his peculiar antics and
original remarks, but his aim appeared to be to cause his side
to win. At such times two captains stood forth in the pres-
ence of the assembled crowd in obedience to the demand of
the society and proceeded to "choose up." A stick some three
feet in length, often a walking cane, was tossed into the air
by one of the captains, the other captain catching it in one
hand, and the first in turn grasping it. They placed their
hands alternately in position until one became the possessor
of the stick. This was repeated three times, the two best out
of three deciding first choice of a debater or the side of the
argument — depending upon the original agreement. After the
house had been divided, the "jury" was selected by the presi-
dent, usually from three to five members. Sometimes ladies
were privileged to sit as judges. It will be seen that Lincoln's
method in debate was such as to win "the jury."

One of his old friends, Nathaniel Griggsby, usually called
"Natty", although Lincoln called him "Nat", said that when
Lincoln appeared in company

the boys would gather and cluster around him to hear him talk. He
was figurative iu his speeches, talks and conversations. He argued much
from analogy, and explained things, hard for us to understand, by stories,
maxims, tales and figures. He would point out his lessons or ideas by
some story that was plain and near to us in order that we might instantly
see the force and bearing of what he said.

Young Lincoln was a great mimic, entertaining and amus-
ing crowds quite as much in this manner as in any other. The
humor of any situation or a mirthful and ludicrous turn
seemed to criss-cross with smiles his face, which even at that
time his associates alleged was "shrivelled and wrinkled".
His smiles and laughter spread in humorous confusion over
his countenance long before the vehicle of speech had pre-
sented the object or subject of his humor to his auditors.

In his reading he devoured anything and everything that
came in his way, never stopping to inquire what it was so long
as it furnished his active mind something on which to labor. In
like manner the subjects of his mimicry were as varied as
occasion might offer, ranging from peculiarities in gait or

342 Indiana Magazine of History

speech of a neighbor or passing stranger to the pulpit efforts
of the backwoods, hard-shell Baptist preacher. He was much
in the habit of repeating the Sunday sermon to the men and
boys in the field on Monday. If perchance he made a rare
find, and his Monday audience appeared to appreciate his
efforts, he repaired to the Gentryville store at night after the
days' labor was done, and there repeated it, embellishing,
revising and enlarging as occasion seemed to warrant.

The Little Pigeon Baptist meeting house was erected in
the year 1820. The elder Lincoln was the boss carpenter,
superintending its erection, and, while Abraham was but
eleven years of age at this time, it is said that he assisted in
felling the trees out of which the building material was ob-
tained. This church was a story and a half high, and, while
its proportions were not great, — being twenty-six by thirty
feet, — for that period it made a rather pretentious house of
worship. It had two windows, each twenty by thirty-six
inches, and was heated in extreme weather by means of two
old-fashioned fireplaces, there being two mud and stick chim-
neys, one at either end of the building.

The church was more or less regularly served by pastors
duly called, but there were long intervals when the little con-
gregation was largely dependent upon "local" ministers or
some chance ministerial visitor. The regular ministry, while
more or less helpful, was in the main but little beyond the
major portion of their parishioners intellectually. Since most
of them were illiterate, and some of them painfully so and
much given to certain pulpit mannerisms, they afforded the
critical student of human nature, young Lincoln, a fine field
for the free play of his powers of mimicry, and his mirth-
provoking efforts at preaching were such as indelibly to fix
these in the memory of his boyhood associates many years
afterward.

Matilda Johnson, his step-sister, said "he was an inde-
fatigable preacher". It was his usual custom when his father
and mother went to church and he and other members of the
family remained at home to take down the Bible, read a verse,
give out a hymn, and after this had been rendered he pro-
ceeded to "preach" a sermon. On one occasion when in the

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 343

midst of a sermon-lecture in the grove near the cabin, John
Johnson, his step-brother, and others who had doubtless heard
the Sunday morning sermon out in the fields during the week,
came up with a land terrapin which they had picked up in
their morning rambles along the creek, and desiring to wit-
ness the quick but clumsy movement of the creature, placed
a coal of fire on its back. Young Lincoln remonstrated, but
in the midst of the fun occasioned by the frantic efforts of
the fire-bearing creature to escape its tormentors Johnson
picked it up and hurled it against a tree, breaking its shell.
As it lay quivering and dying the preacher quickly adapted
himself to his audience and began an exhortation on "Cruelty
to Animals", saying among other things that "an ant's life
is just as sweet to it as our lives are to us."

Young Lincoln was in the habit of delivering the Sunday
sermon to his stepmother when for any cause she was not
privileged to attend worship. The entire family would sit
and listen to Lincoln, who would not only repeat the sermon,
but the text, and in almost every way reproduce the morning
effort, even to the amen. Mrs. Lincoln greatly enjoyed these
reports and professed to think that she derived more benefit
from Abe's sermonizing than she did from the minister him-
self.

The Lincoln home was the stopping place for the ministers.
This furnished such an opportunity for Lincoln to argue that
he invariably availed himself of it. On one occasion he had
"cornered" an illiterate preacher on some point in the story
of Jonah, and in the midst of his confusion Lincoln suddenly
asked him who was the father of Zebedee's children. The
pastor confessed that he did not know. This Zebedee witti-
cism was one of Lincoln's earliest attempts, although the first
recorded humorous effort was when going to mill and wit-
nessing the slow grinding of the old horse mill, he remarked
that "his hound pup could eat all the meal it would grind in
a day and then bawl for his supper."

It was in the pulpit of this Little Pigeon Baptist meeting
house, Mr. Herndon states, that young Lincoln witnessed an
amusing incident which befell one of these transient
preachers, an incident that Lincoln in later years frequently
related, and is as follows :

344 Indiana Magazine of History

The meeting house was located in the woods a mile and a half from
our home and some distance from any other residence. Regular services
were held only once each month. The preacher on this occasion was an
old-line Baptist, and was dressed in coarse linen pantaloons and shirt
of the same material. The trousers were manufactured after the old
fashioned style, with baggy legs and flaps in front, commonly spoken of
as "barn doors'", which were made to attach to the frame without the
aid of suspenders. A single button held his shirt in position, and that
was at the collar. He arose in the pulpit and in a loud voice announced
his text: "I am the Christ whom I shall represent today." About this
time a little blue lizard ran up underneath his roomy pantaloons, and
the old preacher not wishing to interrupt the steady flow of his sermon
slapped away on his legs, expecting to arrest the intruder, but his efforts
were unavailing and the little fellow kept ascending higher and higher.
Continuing the sermon the preacher slyly loosened the button which held
the waistband of his pantaloons, and with a kick off came the easy fitting
garment. Meanwhile Mr. Lizard had passed the equatorial line and was
exploring the part of the preacher's anatomy which lay underneath the
back of his shirt. Things by this time were growing interesting, but the
sermon kept grinding on. The next movement on the part of the preacher
was for the collar button, and with one sweep of his arm off came the tow
linen shirt. The congregation sat for an instant as if dazed. At length
one old sister in the rear of the room rose up and glancing at the excited
object in the pulpit shouted at the top of her voice: "If you represent
Christ, then I am done with the Bible."

On another occasion a traveling minister happened in the
settlement one Sunday morning and was invited to preach.
It appears that his pulpit mannerisms, gestures and platform
eccentricities were quite out of the ordinary. He had the
habit among other things of rolling his eyes not unlike the
old-time colored preacher, and when he warmed up to his
theme he pounded the Bible and the hymn book mercilessly,
accompanied by certain pauses that might have been eloquent
but for the fact that the speaker's zeal got the better of his
judgment, for just at this juncture he introduced sundry
groans and windy suspirations which no doubt he supposed
would greatly aid in fastening the word as a nail in a sure
place. In addition to the foregoing the preacher possessed
an unfortunate physical defect, perhaps acquired, which was
so characteristic of not a few public speakers. He had a
mingled sybillant sonorous nazal twang which he pitched into
that peculiar key in rendering his sing-song address.

Lincoln was present on this occasion, as were many others

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 345

of his age, and some of these boyhood friends of Lincoln,
among whom was Nat Griggsby, related that young Lincoln
again and again repeated this sermon to the farm hands and
the group of loungers at the Gentryville store, and so faithful
was the presentation not only in words, but in pulpit man-
nerisms— the rolling of the eyes, pounding of the Bible, and
the nazal twang — that it was the judgment of those who
heard Lincoln's effort, as well as the original presentation,
that it was impossible to tell wherein the one differed from
the other.

It will become at once apparent from some of the fore-
going incidents that there never was any justification for the
position taken by some of Mr. Lincoln's biographers in assum-
ing, as they did, that he was inclined to make sport of the
church or religion as such. The attitude assumed by some of
his biographers was not only based upon this habit of Lincoln
in repeating the Sunday sermon, but upon some poetic ef-
fusions composed "in Bible language", usually after the man-
ner and style of the ancient Chronicles, wherein he carica-
tured "Sister Gibson and Brother Gibson", members of the
Little Pigeon church, who had been derelict in duty and in
consequence had been called upon to undergo the ordeal of a
church trial. After diligent inquiry touching Mr. Lincoln's
religious convictions, nothing whatever was found indicating
any tendency toward infidelity or atheism; certainly no sem-
blance of a disposition to criticise or lightly esteem the church
or religion. This position of his earlier biographers, who
were themselves personally so inclined, is absolutely without
any foundation.

When it is recalled that young Lincoln's habit of mimicry
and his subjects and objects of caricature were promiscuous,
there is small wonder that these crude efforts in the pulpit
were seized upon by him as quite the best for the exercise of
his powers, since this field was more inviting than any other
that presented itself and he very naturally availed himself
of it.

Being naturally more or less a comedian, and adapting
himself to his audiences, he gave way to buffoonery indis-
criminately, making selection of anything especially appealing

346 Indiana Magazine of History

to him. He not only mimicked the noisy traveling preacher
who was much given to polemic discussion, but was also in
the habit of repeating any public address heard, whether on
the stump or before the bar. If the address appealed to him
as being eloquent or possessing any excellence in any other
way, he brought into play his exceptional powers of memory,
repeating such portions with evident attempt at seriousness,
noting their effect, taking this opportunity to "hear his
voice", of which his associates maintained that he was espe-
cially vain. Not that his vanity led him to suppose that his
voice was musical or fitted for public address beyond others,
but his consuming ambition to become a public speaker gave
free play to his fancy, and in such boyish efforts he flattered
himself into the belief that he was preparing against the day
when he could and would take the stump in real earnest.

He early manifested a desire to indulge himself in public
address. If the school exhibitions may be taken into account,
his age was about eleven years when he began on his own
account. This disposition grew upon him through the years,
until by the time he had reached seventeen he was continually
"on the stump". His stepmother stated that after a few
efforts before boys of his age he at length ventured to try his
powers before larger groups. He particularly made choice
"of the hands in the fields" until, as she put it, "it soon
became an amusing sight to see and hear him make these
speeches." She further confessed that her "husband was
forced to break it up with a strong hand", since it kept the
men from their work.

There appear to be few such characters as Shakespeare,
Burns and Lincoln who, if left to dwell apart and follow the
plow or make use of the ax and maul, deprived of the privi-
lege of a university or college, develop those great faculties
which nature has so abundantly endowed them with, and
happily reach their destined goal by a route, if circuitous and
accompanied by exacting and patient toil, is nevertheless
apparently best suited to them.

Perhaps if Lincoln had been privileged to enjoy the cur-
riculum of a great university, we would doubtless have had
a master mind so skilled and trained as to have enabled him

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 347

to occupy a commanding and enviable place in history, but it
may well be doubted whether or not the very discipline im-
posed by such a course of training would not have marred or
altogether lost to the world some of those rare qualities of
mind and heart which were so prominent in him and which
above all else distinguishes him from most great men of his
time.

Since Lincoln was destined to rise by the sheer force of
his own personality and imperious will, and to develop the
great qualities of mind in this almost unbelievable manner, it
was his good fortune to spend those years of strange prepa-
rations among a simple-minded, yet honest and patriotic folk,
hedged in by a wilderness but freed thereby from those con-
ventional restraints and hindrances that older and more set-
tled communities usually impose. At the same time he was
removed from the blighting effects of vice which, had he
been subjected it, might have prevented the maturing of a
character, embodying all of the essential basic elements of the
plain people. Lincoln did not, as some have supposed, live the
cabin life in the White House so much as he lived the White
House life in the cabin.

Any attempt to analyze his character or in any measure
seek to account for the sustained, universal interest in him
by substantially all classes of people, as well as youth, and
claimed by all political faiths, leads to the fact that in him
was embodied all of the essential and vital elements of man-
hood, as well as the willingness and sincerity of purpose to
give executive expression to the wishes of the people. There
is discerned in this universal admiration of Lincoln not only
an unconscious expression of resentment of such encroach-
ment, but an indication of an instinctive desire to throw off
all mere artificialities of life. We recognize that in him dwelt
the fullness of the simplicities of life to the extent that he
became the apotheosis of the plain people.

Leonard Sweet, a political friend and associate of the
great President, stated that Lincoln in speaking of his Indiana
life always spoke of it as the story of a happy childhood.
There was nothing sad or pinched about it, and no allusion
to want in any part of it. His own description of his youth

348 Indiana Magazine of History

was that of a happy, joyous boyhood. It was told with mirth,
illustrated by pointed anecdotes, and often interrupted by his
jocund laugh.

If the Civil war crisis in our national life necessarily
demanded a leader who was the embodiment of all that the
people themselves stood for or desired, then Providence an-
ticipated this by making choice of a youth without a distin-
guished name, reared him in the seclusion of the wilderness,
just as He has almost all of His great leaders
and when he appeared he so far met the high expectations of
the Almighty and received the gratitude and applause of
mankind that Major John Hay, his private secretary, voices
the sentiment of many when he said:

"Abraham Lincoln was the greatest character that has appeared in
the history of the world since Jesns Christ."'

(To be continued)

Lincoln In Indiana

(Continued) s

By J. Edward Murr
Lincoln a Hoosier

"I am not afraid to die, and would be more than
willing, but I bare an irrepressible desire to live till I
can be assured tbat the world is a little better for my
having lived in it."

Although Mr. Lincoln was born in Kentucky, it is not
possible by any proper method rightly to classify him as a
Kentuckian in the sense that he stood forth as typical and
representative of the citizenship of that great State. The
extreme poverty of his parents, together with their utter lack
of social standing with that dominant class usually regarded
both in Kentucky as well as by those without as possessing
those distinguishing traits that differentiated them from
citizens of other States, makes any attempt to exalt one of
Lincoln's class as typical or representative in any way of
Kentucky, but little short of preposterous.

Kentucky, as has been stated, has not only produced many
great sons, but has been especially fortunate in adopting
others. It may be said to her credit that she has been quite
as kind to the one as to the other, but the class whom she has
delighted to honor has not been that one to which Lincoln
belonged. Henry Clay, an adopted son, was more nearly
representative of the genuine Kentuckian in the estimation
of Kentuckians themselves, and certainly by those without
the State, than any whom Kentucky has ever produced.

It it be true that in him were to be found those distinguish-
ing traits more prominently than in others — traits which
historians and writers generally have regarded as peculiarly
differentiating — then it may be said that there are discerned

14 Indiana Magazine of History

even today among the class to which he belonged these same
marked traits ; and being generally true as it is of her citizens,
and so much so as to justify the pride they have in such a
heritage, it would appear that but for the unprecedented fame
of Lincoln there would have been great hesitancy to classify
him as one of their number in view of the fact that he pos-
sessed nothing in common with the ruling portion of them.
Certainly there was nothing in common between Lincoln and
Henry Clay save their political predilections ; for on the social
side and in all that dinstinguished Clay in addition to his
brilliant genius, Mr. Lincoln bore absolutely no resemblance.
Lincoln was awkward, ungainly and homely to a marked
degree ; uneasy to the extent of being bashful in the presence
of ladies ; lacking culture, ease and grace ; a total stranger
to many of the conventionalities of polite society. And thus
had he been destined to remain in the State of his birth, he
would have more nearly represented the mountaineer type
and such as they, rather than that other class so accustomed
to such a man as Clay.

Clay was a Chesterfield in the drawing room, a Marl-
borough in dignity and bearing before public assemblies ; so
polished and refined in his manners, brilliant and fascinating
in conversation, and so prepossessing in personal appearance
as scarcely to have an equal ; withal a statesman the peer of
any and all of his day, and so persuasive, convincing and
eloquent an orator, with a voice so charming as to awe vast
assemblies, command listening senates and cause his one-time
enemy, John Randolph of Roanoke, who sat in his invalid
chair, to exclaim to his attendants : "Lift me up so that I
may hear that voice once more." Henry Clay, and such as he,
will ever be regarded as embodying those eminent traits be-
speaking the genuine Kentuckian, rather than Abraham Lin-
coln, who would have been the last person to assert such a
claim for himself.

Without, therefore, purposing to make invidious distinc-
tion against any, it cannot be justly charged that the claim
degenerates to the level of a mere puerility when it is asserted
that Abraham Lincoln was a typical Hoosier rather than a
Kentuckian, and he was such not only during his residence in

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 15

Indiana, for one-fourth of his life, but it is further claimed
that he remained a Hoosier throughout his great career.

State lines, of course, do not ordinarily mark the boun-
daries of racial characteristics or peculiarities in manners
and customs of representatives of the same people, save per-
haps in those instances where large rivers or mountain ranges
form the boundary lines. Hence the change of residence of
Mr. Lincoln to the Sangamon river country was not such as
to occasion any difficulty in adjusting himself to the purely
local manners, habits and customs of the people. But it is
nevertheless true that there was a marked individuality and
certain well-defined characteristics in speech and in habits
of life typical of the Hoosier. These dominant traits of char-
acter which Mr. Lincoln acquired during a residence in Indi-
ana of fourteen years, clung to him to the day of his death.

In his pronunciation (he began his Cooper Institute ad-
dress by saying "Mr. Cheerman") his peculiar idioms,
homely illustrations, figures of speech, his quaint humor and
rare wit, his personal appearance, his refusal — at least fail-
ure— to readily conform to mere conventionalities in dress
and many other things of that sort were pre-eminently char-
acteristic of the pioneer Hoosier. Mr. Lincoln's hands had
held the ax and maul so long as to prove rebellious when the
conventionalities of men attempted to glove them. His custom
was to carry his gloves on occasion, but he rarely wore them.

The genius and all that has made for fame in Indiana has
in the main been south of the National Road, which runs
through the State centrally from east to west. The Hoosier
north of this line was as a rule an Eastern product — a Yan-
kee— while the southern half of the State was peopled by
Carolinians, Tennesseeans, Virginians, Kentuckians, and a
few Yankees, the latter class coming by way of the Ohio
river. If there is apparent contradiction to the foregoing
statement in the pride that the State of Indiana has had or
now has in such men as General Lew Wallace, Senator John
W. Kern and Vice-President Thomas R. Marshall and others,
let it be remembered that their blood and lineage are wholly
that of the southern Hoosier; the tide of emigration coming
up from the South merely carried them somewhat farther
north than it did others.

16 Indiana Magazine of History

That there was marked illiteracy during the pioneer period
goes without saying, and that there was a sad lack of refine-
ment and culture is also quite true. But it seems to have
escaped the earlier writers' notice for a time that the blood
which peopled the southern portion of the State in particular
was for the most part quite as good as any in the New World,
and since it was this strain that was destined to produce the
first typical American, Abraham Lincoln, there is the highest
reason for asserting that it was of the best.

Prior to the Civil war the eastern portion of our country
looked upon the West somewhat after the manner that Europe
viewed the New World, in the matter of letters, up to the time
of Washington Irving. The country had been accustomed to
look to the Atlantic coast for leadership in substantially
everything, and so strongly intrenched was this notion in the
minds of the people generally that even the people of the
West themselves were slow to realize that it was this section
of our country that was to produce the typical American.
During the formative period of our country's history the
Atlantic coast was of necessity but Europe transplanted to the
New World. So it became necessary to allow the tide of
emigration to reach that region somewhat remote from these
influences to bring forth "upon our new soil" this real domi-
nant Americanism.

As great as was Mr. Lincoln in the estimation of the East,
there are certain sections today that have never yielded the
ancient notion of the East's own rightful leadership, and they
refuse to allow that any good thing can come out of the West,
which surpasses or even equals the East. Not that there is
any vulgar opposition to the claim made by the West, so much
as there is a dogged disposition to ignore the West to the point
of thinking in terms of the East, and apparently not at all
realizing that what we as a nation had been unconsciously
striving for has been in fact consummated west of the Alle-
ghenies.

That southern Indiana was of all places best suited to rear
this great character destined to furnish the nations of the
earth an example of the possibilities of the plain people is the
position here taken. The odium, not to say the shame, of

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 17

being a Hoosier has, as heretofore indicated, undergone a
marked change since Lincoln's time. While Mr. Lincoln was
a resident of this portion of Indiana, or soon after his reaching
Illinois, there were many domiciled in log cabins in this
Indiana wilderness who were afterward to become famous.

It is significant that the private secretary to Mr. Lincoln,
Major John Hay, who later became one of our greatest secre-
taries of State, was born a few miles north of where Lincoln
lived; and in fifteen miles from the birthplace of Hay and a
few miles to the east of Lincoln there lived Walter Q. Gresham,
afterward an eminent jurist, a great soldier and also a secre-
tary of State. Here resided Eads, of Eads jetties fame ; and it
was from this portion of the State that there came Generals
Harrison, Hovey, Wallace, Burnside, Rosencranz and others of
Civil war fame ; the Lanes, James, Joseph and Henry S., and
what shall we say of Generals Jefferson C. Davis, John Tip-
ton, Governor Jennings and Joaquin Miller; of writers,
jurists, orators, educators and statesmen, who subdued this
wilderness, fought valiantly at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Antietam,
gettysburg, or marched with Sherman to the sea? Among
such a people capable of producing and rearing these, and
such as these, Mr. Lincoln spent those years between seven
and twenty-one. If we may be permitted to assume that the
Almighty desiring early to surround his destined leader
through a terrible Civil war with those influences best calcu-
lated to bring about the deliverance of a people in bondage, as
well as preserve the unity and continuity of a great nation,
by taking him to a free State among a people who had strong
convictions against human slavery, then we may see no de-
parture from His ancient methods in dealing with His chosen.

Jefferson Davis, who was born in a slave State and within
a few miles of Mr. Lincoln, and reared in the belief of the
justice of such an institution, said by way of rejoinder to
President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, in a message
to the Confederate congress, that "it was the most execrable
measure ever recorded in the annals of guilty man." Thus
we may perhaps be allowed to surmise that had Lincoln con-
tinued to reside in Kentucky his attitude, if not favorable
toward slavery, at least might have been so lenient as to have

18 Indiana Magazine of History

eliminated him from leadership in the nation's crisis. The
Indiana residence, while freeing Mr. Lincoln from that favor-
able inclination that seems usually to have prevailed with
those reared under its sway, was at the same time in close
juxtaposition, and thus permitted him to occasionally look in
upon its cruelties. It is quite generally understood that Mr.
Lincoln's first view of slavery after reaching maturity was
on the occasion of his celebrated flatboat trip down the Mis-
sissippi river with Allen Gentry, this being when he was
nineteen years of age.

The writer, while residing in Spencer county, Indiana, a
number of years since, serving a church there in the capacity
of minister, had in his congregation a number of elderly men
and women who remembered very well that Lincoln, while a
ferryman at the mouth of Anderson creek, accompanied their
neighbor, Mr. Ray, a flat-boatman, down the Mississippi river
some two years prior to the celebrated trip with Allen Gentry.

The circumstance and the occasion of the trip were as
follows : Lincoln, while serving as ferryman at the mouth of
Anderson creek, had cultivated a crop of tobacco on the site
of the present little village of Maxville, some three-fourths of
a mile below the town of Troy. The tobacco field had been
planted and cultivated by Lincoln during the lull of business
as a ferryman, and while the tobacco had ripened, had been
cut, cured and otherwise prepared for the market, Mr. Ray,
well known to Lincoln, "was building a flatboat up the mouth
of Anderson" preparatory to making the southern trip.
Accordingly Lincoln, thinking that he saw a way for market-
ing his "two hogsheads of tobacco", proposed to Ray that they
"strike up a trade", and on Ray asking "what sort of a trade
he meant", Lincoln replied : "I've got my tobacco crop cured
up and ready for market and I've got no way to get it south un-
less I send it by boat, and it struck me you'll need hands. You
and me might get together some way. I'll tell you what I'll
do. I'll go along with you at the oar if you'll take my tobacco
and then pay me the difference." This proposition appealed
to Ray and the bargain was accordingly made, Lincoln going
along as a hand "at the oar".

William Forsythe, for many years a business man in

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 19

Grandview, Spencer county, born and reared in the town of
Troy, remembered "long Abe", the ferryman. He often re-
lated to the writer the circumstance of his having been "set
across Anderson by Lincoln". He stated that the boys of
Troy would frequently go down to the mouth of Anderson
creek to hear "Long Abe talk and tell yarns." While he
failed to recall any of "Long Abe's yarns," yet he stated that
when the boys had "prowled about town" and time hung heav-
ily on their hands, some one would at such times speak up and
say: "Boys, I'll tell you what let's do. Let's go down to
Anderson and listen at Long Abe talk." Usually this sugges-
tion was acted upon and they would straightway repair to the
ferry. When asked as to what "Long Abe" talked about, he
replied : "He would just set down and the boys 'd all get
around him and he'd say things that would make them all
laugh." Forsythe often related the circumstance of Lincoln's
making the flatboat trip down the Mississippi river with Ray.
Jefferson Ray, a son of the flatboatman, was likewise a busi-
ness man, and he, as was Forsythe, was officially connected
with the church of which the writer was pastor. Thus these
and many others — some having personal knowledge and others
relating the circumstance as received from Ray — establish
beyond any doubt that Lincoln looked in upon slavery at least
two years earlier than we have been accustomed to suppose.
The fact that Lincoln thus had an earlier view of slavery
than is generally believed is, of course, of no great moment
in any effort made to establish his opposition to that institu-
tion. That he possessed a life-long conviction that all men
should be free is indisputably true; but if he did in fact, as
here recorded, make this flatboat trip south at such an im-
pressionable age (that of seventeen), and it is as clearly
established as anything could well be, then it does become
more or less valuable not only as furnishing him a more ex-
tended view of the effects of slavery, but doubtless in no small
measure served also as a preparation for the two later jour-
neys south in more mature years ; thus enabling him to profit
during the interval by meditation and reflection such as must
have necessarily arisen on the occasion of the journey made in
the earlier period of his life.

20 Indiana Magazine of History

In addition to the foregoing, the fact of Lincoln's having
made this journey South should be told now since the earlier
biographers have failed to record it, and the passing of all
those who could supply data and subject matter precludes
the possibility of any future historian being able to glean in
a field which is of course now largely, if not wholly, barren.

It should perhaps be stated in this connection that the
writer found no authentic account of any definitely expressed
convictions by Lincoln, covering this period, on the question
of African slavery. However, James Gentry, when interro-
gated as to this particular, exclaimed : "Why, Abe always
was against slavery!" And then he added: "But Abe fol-
lowed Henry Clay around wherever he'd go in mighty nigh
everything, and old Harry's notions was responsible fer Abe
a bein' so slow to send out his Emancipation Proclamation.
Abe'd a done it long before he did, I reckon, if his head hadn't
been so full of Henry Clay's notions."

That Henry Clay was Lincoln's political ideal and pos-
sessed marked influence upon him is true, and to no small
extent justifies the conviction here expressed by his old boy-
hood friend and associate. Lincoln, naturally conservative
and of the Clay school in politics, not only saved the border
States to the Union during the Civil war, but on the other
hand was able sufficiently to modify his Clay notion of grad-
ual emancipation to issue finally the Emancipation Procla-
mation when it appeared to be warranted 'by military
necessity.

One-Fourth of Lincoln's Life Spent in Indiana

"I tell my Tad that we will go back to the farm
where I was happier as a boy when I dug potatoes at
twenty-five cents a day than I am now."

Mention has been made of the fact that in many instances
those who have undertaken the task of writing extensively
concerning the life and character of Mr. Lincoln have pro-
fessed to see comparatively little which appeared to justify
special treatment beyond a few anecdotes and stories in the
events of his career prior to his becoming a resident of Illi-

Mutt: Lincoln in Indiana 21

nois. It is strange indeed that in this day, when educators
are calling attention particularly to the adolescent period of
youth, that there has not been some effort beyond that hitherto
attempted to note particularly this period in the life of our
martyred President.

The failure to do this, especially in more recent times, is
doubtless attributable in part to the fact that those who have
attempted to gather suitable data have generally made hasty
journeys to this field, and meeting with comparatively little
success, have yielded to the belief that this period was so
elusive as not to warrant any extended effort.

In view of the fact that Lincoln is so generally regarded
as a model in the higher reaches of statesmanship, politics,
and morals, and possessing as he did substantially all of the
cardinal virtues, so that writers and speakers, both on the
platform and in the pulpit, editors of magazines, the press,
educators in the great universities, the schoolmaster in the
"little red schoolhouse", and the plain people in the highways
and about the firesides in millions of homes, are accustomed
daily to recount his virtues, laud and magnify his name,
therefore, if it can be shown with any degree of certainty
that the formative years had much to do in shaping Mr. Lin-
coln's unprecedented career, then it would appear that a
somewhat extended investigation of this period of his life is
not without considerable interest. Moreover, if these neg-
lected years may be made to yield a fruitful harvest, then it
is but just to the memory of Lincoln that this be done, espe-
cially since he reached the heights of fame from a lower level
than any other great character in history.

The only great men in American history comparable to
President Lincoln by reason of early disadvantages are Horace
Greely, Henry Wilson and Benjamin Franklin. If in the
judgment of some there be yet others, distinctively American,
deemed worthy of such comparison, these named are at least
representative. They were all born in a zone of alluring
chance and opportunity as compared^ with Lincoln. Greely
and Wilson were each within a three days' tramp of educa-
tional centers, while Franklin was born and lived in one. The
beaten path of travel crossed their horizon. There was no

22 Indiana Magazine of History

lack of incentive and inspiring examples of patriotic men
prominent in public affairs, while Lincoln's youth was far
remote from any and all of those influences calculated to
uplift and inspire, things usually deemed so essential in at-
taining unto excellence.

Lincoln's poverty, like Franklin's and Wilson's, was ex-
ceedingly great, but was in his case more easily and content-
edly endured than the more exacting thing of being deprived
of a chance to quench his consuming thirst for knowledge.
His youthful ambition to rise in the world was native, domi-
nating and irresistible. Denied as he was the privileges of
school, access to libraries, and the association of the educated
and learned, it was left for him to demonstrate the possibility
of going forth to conquer, unaided by artificial and external
means, save a borrowed library of seven books and becoming
as he did such a master of them as to enable him in turn to
master men, cope with rising events and challenge the ad-
miration of mankind. So great were his achievements and
so enduring his fame that he staggers royalty on its road
with burdens of oppression into soberness and justice, and
provokes and inspires by his illustrious deeds along the path
from the dust-covered floor of his wilderness cabin to the
nation's capitol, the peasant's son to hope. The boy Lincoln
needed no incentive to acquire knowledge. To know with him
was from the first a passion. He did not wish so much for
examples of what learning might accomplish or produce as
he did for the necessary tools with which he might fashion
the boy of his day-dreams — himself — into the man he really
believed himself capable of becoming.

He early learned to believe in himself, implicitly, trust-
fully and overwhelmingly, and no one thing was more con-
spicuous throughout his entire career than this, save perhaps
his honesty. No President of the United States ever received
more advice and listened to it more patiently than he, but no
man who ever sat in the executive chair of the nation needed
it less or used it more sparingly. This was characteristic of
him as a youth. He gave a patient hearing to all and then
followed his own counsel. He was quite self-contained and
abundantly resourceful, accustomed as he was in youth, and

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 23

later in his public career, to be much on the "stump", yet his
caution was so great as to make him a rather poor extem-
poraneous speaker. He must first think it over and then he
was ready without fear or favor. He never doubted his ability
to meet any emergency or master any task, and he cared but
little for precedent, although he established more precedents
than any other President in American history. He wrote his
first inaugural address without consultation with anybody,
and read this "as if he had been delivering inaugural ad-
dresses all his life." He kept his own counsel. In mature
years he rarely confided in his most intimate friends. He
never did fully in any of them. In youth this trait was
noticeable. He was diffident on occasions, and impressed all
of his associates with the idea that what he said on any given
subject was but little as compared to much that he could say.
He never left any one in doubt, however, as to any position
taken on any subject. From the day of his youthful opposi-
tion to intemperance down to the "house divided against
itself" speech, and the famous letter to Horace Greely wherein
he stated that his "paramount object was to save the Union",
he stood out in the open. He rescued politics from the charge
of trickery and double-dealing and restored it to a place of
honor, and if it has at any time since sunk down into the
"mud and scum of things", it is no fault of his.

What Lincoln purposed doing or saying in any given case
he carried out to the letter. Where most others jumped at
conclusions, he patiently reasoned his way, and when once
reached no one could by any possibility, either by persuasion
or force, move him. Mrs. Lincoln once said of him : "When
he has made up his mind no one can change him."

As a youth his obstinacy would have passed for stubborn-
ness but for the manifest fairness and justness of the position
taken. This, together with the fact that his sense of justice
and honesty ever caused him to make amends for any mis-
take in judgment which he made, caused him to be invariably
chosen by his associates to adjudicate differences.

Any boyhood quarrel leading to fight ended by Lincoln's
opponent becoming his frind. He "got mad", but was a
stranger to malice. When he said in a great state paper —

24 Indiana Magazine of History

his second Inaugural Address, — "with malice toward none,
with charity for all," he was not voicing a thing learned dur-
ing the terrible four years' war; he was but announcing to
the world that his lifelong disposition to hold no malice, after
having been tried in the fires of four years of civil war, had
come out unchanged. Had General Andrew Jackson been
in his stead and given utterance to such a sentiment, we would
perhaps have deemed it so at variance with his accustomed
manner as to call it hypocrisy. Jackson, however, would
never have uttered this sentiment at the close of a great war
for the preservation of the Federal Union. It may be doubted
whether we have ever had any other President who would
have done so.

Young Lincoln had a fight with William Grigsby when six-
teen years of age, and not only did they "make up" and be-
come friends, but during the Civil war on one occasion when
party spirit ran high, a man in Gentryville was freely indulg-
ing in criticism of Lincoln and "Bill Grigsby hauled his coat
off and made him take it back". The Lincoln critic was a
local bully, and after the trouble, when Lincoln's honor had
thus been saved by proxy, Grigsby exclaimed : "No man can
talk about Abe around here unless he expects to take a
lickin'."

The great Lincoln lecturers, such as Bishop Charles Fow-
ler, Vice-President Schuyler Colfax and Col. Henry Watter-
son, listened to with attention and great profit by
multitudes, always placed the emphasis upon other periods in
Mr. Lincoln's life rather than upon the formative years.
Indeed, it cannot escape the notice of the least observant that
substantially all that has ever been said upon the platform
concerning Mr. Lincoln's youth, especially as pertaining to
or influencing in any way his public career, has been very
largely confined to those years (the first seven) spent in
Kentucky, the State of his birth.

Some of his biographers, in desiring to have him secure
the supposed benefits of a longer residence in his native State
than it was his fortune to have, took some liberties with
certain incidents transpiring at a later period and gave them
a Kentucky setting. Two biographers at least distinctly as-

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 25

sert that Lincoln was called "honest Abe", while yet a resident
of Kentucky; and some of them attribute to him the ability
to read and write while a mere infant, making much of his
schooling in that State, and otherwise making assertions that
are incompatible with reliable testimony.

The boy Lincoln learned to read quite young, and while
yet a resident of Kentucky. He was, however, indebted to
his mother for this rather than to Riney or Hazel, his two
teachers there. The attendance at the Riney school was at the
age of four, only for a very brief time, and he went simply
to accompany his sister Sarah. He was seven years old when
he attended the next term. Evidently he was greatly profited
and made rapid progress during this session.

Col. Henry Watterson in his great lecture on Lincoln, as
well as in other public addresses where incidental reference
to Lincoln is made, invariably speaks of him as the "great
Kentuckian", making no mention whatever of that period in
Mr. Lincoln's life spent in the State of Indiana. But as if
fortifying himself against the possibility of this assertion
being called in question, since the whole of that life save
the first seven years was spent outside of Kentucky, he
straightway asks : "For what was Springfield, Illinois, but a
Kentucky colony?"

In view of the foregoing logic, what would be the claim
in behalf of Henry Clay, who was a bearded man from the
State of Virginia when taking up his residence in Kentucky?
And to use the interrogatory of Colonel Watterson, and apply
it to Mr. Clay, we may ask: "For what was Kentucky but a
Virginia colony?" Again in the case of Gen. Albert Sidney
Johnston of New England lineage, that great military cap-
tain who came so nearly planting the Stars and Bars on the
banks of the Ohio river ; does it follow that he was a Puritan
when his impressionable years of training were spent among
Cavaliers? And yet again, because the last remaining mem-
ber of the old school of brilliant editors, Col. Watterson him-
self, honored as he is throughout the nation, and ever regarded
as a truly great Kentuckian, because he himself happened to
be born elsewhere than in the State of Kentucky, does it in
the least lessen the just claim to such distinguished consider-

26 Indiana Magazine of History

ation, since he like Mr. Clay is the very embodiment of all of
those eminent traits bespeaking a Kentuckian?

When the bill before the United States Senate proposing
to appropriate $2,000,000 for the erection of a Greek memo-
rial temple to the memory of Lincoln was under discussion,
Senator OUie James of Kentucky, in speaking in behalf of
the measure and in opposition to the proposed substitute,
that of erecting a memorial highway from Washington City
to the battlefield of Gettysburg, spoke of Mr. Lincoln as "that
great Kentuckian", and suggested that if it was deemed ad-
visable to construct a Lincoln roadway anywhere, it would
be more fitting to build one from Lincoln's birthplace in
Kentucky to the State of Illinois. The presumption is that
in that event this highway would pass through Indiana, al-
though, as usual, no mention was made of that State.

Ex-Presidents Roosevelt and Taft both visited the birth-
place of Mr. Lincolln in official capacity, and both of them
in addresses on those occasions did not fail to note the fact
(and very properly so) that Mr. Lincoln was a Kentuckian
by birth, but no mention was made of the fact that when
Illinois received him he was a bearded man, and when Ken-
tucky dismissed him he was a mere child, departing with
little more than a memory of his native State.

Colonel Roosevelt in particular spoke of Mr. Lincoln as
"the great Kentuckian", and associated him with the Ken-
tucky pioneers. Indeed, some of Mr. Lincoln's biographers
have repeatedly denominated him as a Kentucky pioneer,
whereas his parents were both Virginians ; and while he was
born in Kentucky, in leaving that State while yet so young
it cannot rightly be claimed that he was in any sense a Ken-
tucky pioneer. As Colonel Roosevelt asserts, he was asso-
ciated with these pioneers, although but very briefly and
merely as a child. However, some of his Indiana neighbors
were Kentuckians.

A search through numerous addresses delivered on great
public occasions, in lectures, periodicals and books reveals the
unmistakable fact that but small space has been allotted to
those years in the life of the great President spent in Indiana,
but much has been said by the many concerning Mr. Lincoln's

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 27

birthplace, and a labored effort made to account for his great-
ness by the mere fact of his having had a Kentucky origin.
The reasons for this are perhaps not difficult to ascertain, at
least some of them.

Kentucky had the proud distinction of early producing
or adopting many great men. Being the gateway to the North
through which the emigrant tides poured to the newer States
and Territories, she took toll of these, often selecting the
best, but not always. Being a slave State and fostering an
institution that materially contributed to the creation of a
regime generally prevailing over a large portion of the State,
although not all, there was in consequence lodged with this
favored class all the political power, as well as the intellec-
tual, financial and social prestige. It was this class that was
met with and spoken of, and being especially fortunate in her
adoption of Henry Clay, the world without readily came to
regard Clay, and such as he, as typifying Kentucky as a
whole.

Her mountaineers and poor whites did not at that time
disturb averages as they now do. They were then content
to enjoy their feudal fights. The currents of life swept around
them. No John Fox, Jr., was at that period portraying their
life and character, but whatever was said in song or story
was of the other dominant and ruling class. So true was this
that when Stephen Collins Foster from farther north looked
in upon this scene he was induced to locate "The Old Ken-
tucky Home" in the Blue Grass region with "darkies gay"
and pickaninnies playing on the cabin floor.

Indiana was not so fortunate in some particulars. During
the pioneer period of her history, and therefore while Lincoln
was a resident of that State, the term "Hoosier" was given to
her citizens, a name at that time, and for a considerable
period thereafter, conveying the idea of, whatever else it
may, inferiority, boorishness in manners, deplorable ignorance
and crudity ; and thus the name was indicative of that some-
thing bespeaking an inhabitant of a State whose community
life was believed to be faithfully portrayed by Edward Eg-
gleston in the Hoosier School Master. Although Eggleston
perhaps never meant that his fictitious portraiture of the

28 Indiana Magazine of History

early pioneers was to be taken so seriously, but, fiction though
it was, and portraying as it did the life and character of the
pioneer type of that day, not only in the State of Indiana but
throughout the Middle West as well, no matter of fact history
was ever more faithfully and literally received. It is believed
that in remote sections of our country there are those today
who still hold to the ancient belief, and apply it to the present
generation of Hoosiers. Therefore, for one seeking to eulo-
gize a great character, and particularly such a one as Lincoln,
deficient as he was in the training of the schools, certainly
anything else but polished in the manners and customs
peculiar to the older and more settled communities, and above
all, one who apparently by nature was so democratic in his
tastes and appetencies, there is small wonder that the earlier
historians and eulogists (all of whom save one were from
without the State) studiously avoided the Hoosier period in
Mr. Lincoln's life, save that in tracing his itinerary they
bridged these formative years spent among Hoosiers with a
few incidents and anecdotes of more or less interest, and
briefly noted the beginnings of his career, then passing on to
the more active years of his manhood in the State of Illinois.
At this late day when we are so far removed from those
things once generally prevalent, when the title "Hoosier" has
become quite as honorable as that borne by the citizens of
any State in the Union, and more especially when we come to
consider the life and services of such a world character as
was Mr. Lincoln, some things may be justly asserted con-
cerning the Hoosier period in his life with a reasonable expec-
tation that adequate emphasis be allowed and it in conse-
quence be placed in its proper relation.

Three States, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, had to do
in producing, rearing and offering to the world this great
character. It is a distinguished honor that the State of Ken-
tucky has in being able to point with pardonable pride to the
spot that gave birth to our greatest American. This spot has
been highly and very fittingly honored by the expenditure of
a vast amount of money in the erection of a suitable memorial
building. This has caused Presidents, congressmen, govern-

Mutt: Lincoln in Indiana 29

ors of States, and multitudes of the plain people to make
pilgrimages there and thus pay homage to his memory.

The prairie State of Illinois that twice offered Mr. Lincoln
as her successful candidate for the presidency, and in whose
soil his body now reposes beneath a costly and imposing
monument, has just cause for pride. But if Kentucky gave
Mr. Lincoln birth, it was as if she deemed that quite sufficient
honor and speedily dismissed him at the tender age of seven
to be received by the new State of Indiana with a pioneer's
welcome. Here amid the heroic frontier hardships he reached
his majority, spending fourteen years, or just one-fourth of
his entire life on Indiana soil.

In an address to an Indiana regiment of Civil war soldiers
President Lincoln said: "I was born in Kentucky, raised in
Indiana, and now live in Illinois." Since it is particularly
with these years spent in Indiana with which we have to do,
the inquiry is here made: What period in the life of any
man is of as much interest or ordinarily calculated to influ-
ence and shape the destiny as those years between seven and
twenty-one? What happened during those formative years
in Mr. Lincoln's life? Was his stay in Indiana a mere chance,
one of the accidents in the fortune of a roving, nomadic
father, or is there rather discerned a leading of Providence?

It may not be inappropriate here to raise the question,
would his career have been what it afterward became had he
spent these formative years elsewhere, even in the State of
Illinois ? Or, reversing the order of history, had he been born
in Indiana, spending the first seven years there, removing to
the State of Kentucky, remaining there until attaining his
majority, and then going to Illinois as he did, would his career
have been what it was? It is believed that certain influences
would have produced marked changes in him, and so much
so as to have prevented Lincoln from becoming the great anti-
slavery advocate and leader. Moreover, it cannot be doubted
that had he spent all of these fourteen formative years in
Kentucky, even though born in Indiana, his greatness would
have almost wholly been attributed to a residence and rearing
among Kentucky pioneers, and the accident of his birth would
have doubtless received somewhat less consideration than it

30 Indiana Magazine of History

has. Unquestionably, had Mr. Lincoln been reared elsewhere
than in Indiana, particularly in a slave State, the plans and
purposes of his life might have been hindered or defeated
altogether. In raising such questions we are not wholly in a
field purely conjectural.

The Every-day Life of Lincoln

I personally wish Jacob Freese, of New Jersey, appointed colonel of
a colored regiment, and this regardless of whether he can tell the exact
color of Julius Caesar's hair.

Many people have from time to time expressed a desire to
know somewhat more in detail concerning the "every-day life
of Lincoln's youth ;" something as to his "manners, habits and
customs ;" whether he "possessed vicious tendencies ;" whether
he was "given to idleness or not," as has been alleged ; whether
he was "of a quarrelsome nature," and many other things of
this sort, so that some adequate idea might be formed as to
just what extent, if any, there was a basis for supposing him
at that time making any preparation, however unconsciously,
for the unprecedented career that awaited him.

A painstaking effort was made covering this field of in-
quiry, and it is believed that these repeated interviews with his
former associates elicited information which will aid in reach-
ing conclusions as to the influence some things transpiring in
his youth had in shaping his destiny.

It should be stated first of all that Lincoln himself was
accustomed to assert from his fifteenth year onward, in a sort
of half jest, half earnest way, that "he didn't always expect to
grub, dig and maul." When asked at such times what he ex-
pected to do he invariably replied : "I'll do something and be
somebody," and often closed by saying: "I'll be President, I
reckon." If Lincoln possessed visions of a future altogether
different from the ceaseless round of menial toil, which did not
particularly promise to better his condition since he failed to
receive remuneration commensurate thereto, his boyhood as-
sociates in no single case asserted that they at any time antici-
pated the great career of Mr. Lincoln. As we now look back
upon Mr. Lincoln's career and witness his rise to fame, it ap-

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 31

pears so utterly at variance with all that is deemed essential to
achieve greatness as to occasion momentary doubts of the
truthfulness of history. Had he lived in an earlier age his life
story would have speedily passed into romance and fiction.

Contrary to the usual representation, a number of these
boyhood friends, while not especially schooled, were quite well
informed, and many of them had prospered until they pos-
sessed at least passing wealth. No better citizen could be
found anywhere than the Gentrys, Larmars, Halls, Forsythes,
Brooners, and others. These men asserted that "Lincoln as a
boy was jokey and lively, entering into all of their boyish
sports heartily." These sports and games consisted of jump-
ing half hammon (now called hop, step and jump), the broad
jump, running, slap jack, town ball, stink base, wrestling, I
spy, etc.

On one occasion when quite a number of the young folks
had gathered at the Lincoln cabin and were engaged in a game
of "hide and go seek," Lincoln among them, Granny Hanks
came to the door with a Bible in her hands, and calling to young
Lincoln, said: "Abe, I want you to come in hyar and read a
chapter for me out'n the Bible. I aint hearn it read fur a right
smart spell." It should be stated that it is not certain just who
this old lady was, but there was a lady called "Granny Hanks"
who for a time at least, resided with the Lincolns. These
pioneer neighbors of the Lincolns frequently alluded to her in
conversation. No mention has ever been made of her by any
of Mr. Lincoln's biographers, and it is quite immaterial for our
purpose to establish the identity, save that there might arise
the charge that this character was purely fictitious. That sub-
stantially all of the immediate relatives of Nancy Hanks fol-
lowed her to Indiana is the statement made by the Hankses
themselves, and thus there need be no scruples as to the iden-
tity of this particular lady.

We are accustomed to believe that in those days respect
on the part of young folks for old age was especially charac-
teristic. At any rate, in this case Lincoln immediately quit the
game when so requested and went into the house followed by
all the rest of the young folks. The future humorist and wit,
who read a chapter from Artemus Ward to members of his

32 Indiana Magazine of History

cabinet just before announcing his intention of publishing the
Emancipation Proclamation, now gravely seated himself
opposite the old lady and presently began thumbing the leaves
of the book which had been handed to him in search of a suit-
able chapter. The young people had crowded into the room,
some being seated on the backless bench, some two or three on
chairs, and a number were standing about the room. Presently
the reader began a chapter, presumably in the Prophecy of
Isaiah, but he had not read very far until he began making use
of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and such other volumes as he
was familiar with, all this time making solemn but ill-
concealed sly observations as to just how this rendering was
being received by Granny Hanks. After a number of
verses ( ?) had been read the old lady's suspicion became
aroused, and finally when the reader ventured to make a rather
free translation she suddenly interrupted him by exclaiming:
"Abe, I've hearn the Bible read a great many times in my life,
but I never yit hearn them things in it afore." Lincoln, per-
ceiving that he was fairly caught, threw off his make-believe
solemnity and abandoned himself to guffaws of hearty
laughter, at the same time lifting the book high above his head
and occasionally striking his knees a resounding whack with
the free hand. After indulging himself in this manner for a
time and occasioning more or less merriment among the older
boys and girls present, his laughter at length subsided and he
remarked : "Granny, you caught me that time, didn't you?" He
then began deliberately reading again, this time following the
text.

The character of Lincoln's humor, and his disposition to
make free use of it at the least provocation by associating it,
as in this instance, with the more serious things of life, were
apparently prominent enough at an early period readily to
account for some of the surprises produced in the minds of
cabinet officers and others high in authority during the days
of his occupancy of the White House.

It is exceedingly difficult for those of this century and
age of plenty, accustomed to the numerous conveniences of
modern life, to appreciate adequately the social standing, self
denial and lack of the many things once regarded as luxuries,

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 33

but now considered as necessities and which in many instances
are now to be had merely for a trifle. Moreover, the early set-
tlers, particularly in Lincoln's day, had to contend with some
things which their descendants are free from altogether. In
addition to the afflictions peculiar to the pioneer period, as well
as the danger of being exposed to wild animals, there were
many annoyances to which the people were subjected. They
had the mosquito without the modern conveniences of meeting
his attacks ; the woods tick, still met with in certain sections ;
burrs, such as the "stick tights," "Spanish needles," cockle and
"beggar's lice ;" venomous serpents, such as the deadly rattlers
and copper heads — the latter being, if not quite as venomous,
certainly more treacherous — chiggers and numerous incon-
veniences. In addition to the foregoing there were the body
and head lice, particularly the latter. It was Lincoln's favorite
poet, Burns, who wrote a poem "on seeing a louse on a lady's
bonnet." Had the Scotch bard been a resident of this section
in the early days, he would have had occasion to witness the
"crawlin beastie" again and again, for no term of school ever
closed without a siege by this species of vermin.
Wesley Hall stated :

One morning bright and early Abe came to our home, and after being
seated and asked by my mother in true neighborly fashion, "how are
all the folks?" he replied : "They are all well, Mrs. Hall, but mother thinks
the children have got the creepers, and she sent me over here this morn-
ing to borry your fine-tooth comb." When this information was imparted,
Mrs. Hall threw up her hands and exclaimed : "My Lordy, Abe. d'ye reckon
it's a fact?" Whereupon Abraham observed that "he reckoned they had.
but not having a comb with teeth close enough together to ketch 'em,
he had been dispatched on the hunt of one that would."

The accommodating possessor of this household article
brought it forth and knowing that her own children, and Wes-
ley in particular, had been at play with the Lincoln children, she
suddenly suggested the possibility of the "creepers" having
found lodgment on the heads of the younger members of her
own household and desiring to verify her supposition, she put
it to the test by proceeding to comb the head of young Wesley
and found abundant evidence to justify all of her suspicions.
After young Hall had been subjected to this rigid examination,

34 Indiana Magazine of History

with Lincoln seated near, occasionally offering humorous re-
marks, Mrs. Hall made bold to suggest the possibility of the
"creepers" being upon Lincoln's head ; whereupon he
acquiesced to the effect that there was a possibility of this being
true. Then Mrs. Hall further pointedly suggested that she be
privileged to make examination, and Lincoln getting down on
his knees before her and bending his head over, facing a news-
paper spread out on the floor, it was not long before all con-
cerned were satisfied that the investigation was timely.

Lincoln was given to indulging himself in the sport of
fishing, coon and opossum hunting at nights, but found sport
distasteful if he had to stalk a deer cautiously, approach a flock
of turkeys or sit quietly on the bank of a stream without a
companion. Such distaste grew out of the fact that it divorced
him from his companions or necessitated refraining from con-
versation. His enjoyment of the night-hunting was attributed
to the fact that on such expeditions there was small need of
refraining from hilarious conversation, and since it placed him
in company of a goodly number of men and boys he engaged in
this particular diversion quite frequently. His overmastering
desire to be found in the company of others — the more, the
better — led him to attend all social functions of the neighbor-
hood such as weddings, corn-huskings, log-rollings and rais-
ings. In fact, he could usually be found mingling with the
crowd no matter what had called it together. His presence,
therefore, on some of these occasions, was not due to any espe-
cial interest in the things done, but because he loved the fellow-
ship of men. He frequented all horse races held in the settle-
ment, and if a fight between two "bullies" was scheduled, he
was invariably present. These horse races, of course, were noth-
ing more than a test of speed of "brag horses" in that and ad-
joining neighborhoods, the owners having usually placed a bet
and challenged one another to a test. They partook somewhat of
the nature of Indian pony races rather than regular race
track meets. The race was run on a straight-away, often a
public road. Such gatherings afforded opportunity also to
ascertain who was the champion "wrastler" and the best broad
or half-hammon jumper. Foot races were indulged in; "town
ball," "stink base," and "chicken" were played not only before

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 35

and after the races, but on many other occasions where crowds
were gathered. Horseshoe pitching, throwing a heavy maul
as a shot put, lifting a dead weight — usually a boulder or log —
and many other such things tested physical endurance and
prowess. In all feats of strength Lincoln excelled, such as
throwing the maul and wrestling. Being exceedingly awk-
ward, his movements, while surprisingly quick, were ludicrous
and provoked more or less merriment. Fistic encounters were
quite common, but resort to the use of a weapon such as a
knife or gun was exceedingly rare. Men bearing any grudge
against each other, or taking umbrage at any fancied slight or
insult, would say: "I'll meet you Saturday at town and I'll
settle with you there." Hence Saturday afternoon fights were
numerous. Usually the fight was fair, that is, "no gouging or
biting" was permitted and no interference on the part of the
bystanders was suffered on penalty of a personal chastisement
by a "backer." If the under man "hollered enough," that was
usually satisfactory to both the victor and onlookers, but if in
the heat of passion other punishment was still meted out, there
was no lack of friends and sympathizers for the "under dog"
in the fight, who speedily came to his rescue. Lincoln was
much given to wrestling, but seldom fought. He was not
averse to this, but his well-known strength for a youth — a
minor — prevented difficulties with men ; and since he reached
his gigantic stature of six feet, four inches, when sixteen years
of age, and possessing great strength, he was "too big to fight
a boy and too young to fight a man." It should not be inferred
by any of these remarks that Lincoln was quarrelsome or usu-
ally disposed to "pick a quarrel." Indeed, the very opposite
was true of him, but in the phraseology of the day, "he alius
toted his own skillet." When provoked and jeered at by the
uninitiated because of his awkward appearance, he received
the banterings at first quite good naturedly, and his tormentors
were easily led into the belief that he was a coward. When
forbearance ceased to be a virtue, Lincoln stood up for his
honor and invariably "thrashed" his assailant.

Rothchild in Master of Men, in speaking of Lincoln during
this period, said : "He was the shyest, most reticent, most un-
couth and awkward appearing, homeliest and worst dressed of

36 Indiana Magazine of History

any in the entire crowd." This characterization in some par-
ticulars is not in accordance with the facts as detailed by many
of Lincoln's early friends. Young Lincoln was not shy of any-
thing or any one, save that he manifested more or less uneasi-
ness in the presence of ladies. This was certainly true of him
while reading law at New Salem, Illinois, when it is related
that he changed his boarding place because a number of strange
ladies came there to take their meals. When called upon in
Washington City to make an address before ladies, he stated
that "he was not accustomed to the eulogy of women." Lin-
coln was not reticent at any time in life, and no more during
his youth than at a later period, but if by reticence it is aimed
to show that he could keep his own counsel and otherwise pre-
vent encroachment upon his reserve, then no youth nor adult
was any more reticent than he. But as a youth "he was a
talker," and an incessant one, although he was a good listener.
He was not dictatorial or inclined to monopolize conversation,
but so incessant a talker was he that he was charged, and
doubtless justly so, by his associates as being "vain about hear-
ing his own voice." However, it should be said that this alle-
gation was made, having in view his habit of "preaching" or
"stump speaking."

Major John Hay, his private secretary, asserted that Lin-
coln's intellectual arrogance and unconscious assumption of
superiority was the one thing that such men as Senator Sum-
ner and Governor Chase could never forgive. Secretary
Seward, that astute politician and sage of Auburn, after three
months of the untried Lincoln in the White House, wrote his
wife that "the President is more than a match for us all."

When Mrs. Lincoln early in the administration said to her
husband that certain politicians were asserting that Secretary
Seward would "run things," Lincoln calmly remarked :

I may not rule myself, but certainly Seward shall not. The only
ruler I have is my conscience, following God in it, and these men will
have to learn that yet.

Lincoln had a becoming respect for age — provided age set
the example. A lady whom Lincoln had occasionally called on
and accompanied to social gatherings, said :

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 37

One eveniu' Abe and me wus standin' out in the yard at our house a
talkin', and we heard a clatter of horses' hoofs comin' up the road that
run past the house, and purty soon we seen who it was. It was a neigh-
bor that wus always braggin' about his horses, a claimin' he had the fastest
horse in all the country 'round, and he had a proud way of ridin' just to
show oft'. So as I say, up he come, like as if he wus going after a doctor,
and when he got opposite to us he stopped and begun as usual to brag
about his horse, sayin' among other things that he could ride him in a lope
all the way to Boonville and he'd never even draw a long breath, and a
whole lot more things like that. Abe stood there and 'peared to listen to
him like if 'twas the first time he'd ever heard him tell them things, and
then when he Anally got through Abe up and says: "I've heard you say
tbat time and agin. In fact your always a braggin' on what you've got
and what you c'n do or a goin' to do. Now suppose jest for once in your
life you quit your braggin' and blowin' around and really do something.
Strike out for Boonville, and when you git there, take a right good look
and see if your brag horse aint fetchin' some mighty short breaths."

As to Lincoln's being "the worst dressed youth in the
crowd," that is an overdrawn statement, for they were all
dressed about as nearly alike as coon skin caps, hunting shirts
or a blouse and buckskin breeches could make them. If there
was any difference, it would be in Lincoln's favor on the score
of cleanliness, for his mother frequently commented upon the
fact of his being so careful with his clothing, and certainly no
better evidence could be desired in such a matter than that of a
mother. If the assertion that he was the worst dressed one in
the crowd should be from the tailor's point of view, then there
need be no difference of opinion concerning it. He appears to
have always had more or less difficulty in obtaining garments
large enough. His trousers were usually from five to twelve
inches too short, and since he almost invariably wore moccasins
or low topped shoes, there was an unprotected area between the
ankle and the knee that was quite large. Lincoln himself, in
speaking of this when accused of being associated with the
well-to-do and prosperous, said that this part of his anatomy
"had been exposed to the elements for so long that his shin
bone was permanently blue" ; and he submitted that "there
was nothing about the circumstance indicating aristocracy."

As has been clearly indicated, Lincoln was often selected
by the uninitiated as a target for sport, and his good nature
was frequently regarded as an indication of cowardice. On one

38 Indiana Magazine of History

occasion he was attacked as he stood near a tree, by a larger
boy with a crowd of others at his back. It was supposed, of
course, that the big awkward boy would run when the charge
was made, but not so. Instead, Lincoln quickly laid out the
first, second and third boy in rapid succession, and then placing
his back against a tree, he turned tormentor, daring the re-
mainder to make any further demonstration, and when they
elected not to do so he taunted them for being cowards.

There was at least one instance when Lincoln yielded to the
temptation to deviate from his accustomed fairness, yet it
would appear that there was some extenuation in the matter.
Colonel Lamon, in his biography of Lincoln, relates what pur-
ports to be the correct version of this circumstance, but that
there are some statements in it wholly incompatible with the
general deportment of Lincoln, as well as in the subject matter
itself, is the assertion of a number of eye witnesses of the
affair. Wesley Hall, James Gentry, Redmond Grigsby and
Joseph Gentry were all living at the time that this incident was
investigated by the writer. They were all present when the
incident took place and were much given to relating this cir-
cumstance and for some cause reverted to it more frequently
than any other that came under their obseryation during the
early life of Lincoln.

A crowd of boys and young men had gathered, for no
particular purpose, when Lincoln and William Grigsby, after a
time, got into a dispute over the ownership of a certain spotted
pup. Each alleged that a neighbor had promised to make him
a present of this particular pup. The dispute finally assumed
the proportions of a quarrel. Grigsby stepped squarely in
front of Lincoln and angrily dared him to fight. Whereupon
Lincoln said : "Bill, you know I can lick you, so what's the use
of you making such a proposition?" Grigsby, whom it was
generally asserted feared no man and was a great fighter, re-
plied : "I know you c'n whip me, but I'll fight you for the dog
jest the same." Finally Lincoln said : "I'll tell you what I'll do,
Bill. Although I know that pup belongs to me, and you know it
too, I'm willing to put up John Johnson here in my place. He's
more your size, and whichever whips gets the pup." This was
readily agreed to by Grigsby, and "hauling their coats off as

Mutt: Lincoln in Indiana 39

the boys formed a circle, they began the fight." They had not
fought long until it became evident to all, and to Lincoln in
particular, that Grigsby was having the best of the argument.
Suddenly, without any warning, Lincoln stepped into the ring,
seized Grigsby by the collar and trousers and bodily hurled him
over the heads of the crowd. He then "dared the entire Grigs-
by crowd to come into him." There being no disposition to do
so, Lincoln's anger subsided quickly and presently he was
laughing and joking.

Hall and the Gentry brothers asserted that "Abe always
acted fair," and they couldn't understand at first why he should
interfere as he did in this instance, until it was ascertained
subsequently that the pup had in fact been given to Lincoln,
and Grigsby knowing this, had conceived this plan of obtaining
it. Both of the Gentrys and Hall stated that this altercation
took place on the exact site of the railroad depot at Lincoln
City, which stands one hundred and fifty yards west of the
Lincoln cabin site.

The assertion of Mr. Lamon in this instance, as well as in
others, that "Lincoln drew forth a whiskey bottle and waived it
dramatically above his head" on the defeat of Grisby, or that
he "was accustomed to take his dram," and such other similar
statements, is not at all in accordance with any of the testi-
mony given by Lincoln's early friends. They expressly stated
that no such thing transpired during this fight as Lincoln ex-
hibiting a bottle of whiskey, but they were unanimous in stat-
ing that Lincoln never at any time so much as tasted intoxicat-
ing liquor of any sort, nor did he use tobacco, either in chewing
or smoking.

It was this same William Grigsby who later became such
a warm friend of Lincoln that he offered during the Civil War
to whip any man in Gentryville who was disposed to speak dis-
paragingly of his old friend, "Abe Linkern." Amos Grigsby,
brother of William, a short while after the fight, married Sarah
Lincoln, sister of Abraham. At this time she was eighteen
years of age and her brother was sixteen. While they were
very much attached to one another, the Grigsbys did not like
young Lincoln by reason of the affair with William, and the
wedding was arranged to take place in the two-story log house

40 Indiana Magazine of History

of the groom's father. In fact, there was to be a double wed-
ding since one of the Grigsby girls was to be married at the
same time. Young Lincoln was not privileged to be present
and witness the marriage of his only sister in consequence of
the trouble aforementioned. Lincoln meditated revenge for
this slight in a manner quite unusual indeed and unheard of in
this section. It was as follows :

Lincoln quietly sought an interview with a young man
who he knew was an invited guest at the double wedding and
requested that he do him a favor. "Certainly, Abe, I'll do
anything for you. What is it?" "Well, you know I'm not to
be at that wedding. It seems they don't care to have me around
for some reason or other, and I've picked on you to look things
over and somehow manage to do the honors of conducting the
grooms to the bridal chamber." Careful and detailed instruc-
tion was given as to diplomatic procedure so that suspicions
might not be aroused on the part of any. It appeared that these
were carried out to the letter and worked admirably. When,
according to the pioneer custom, the grooms were escorted up
the perpendicular sassafras ladder in one corner of the room,
which led up through a "scuttle hole" in the ceiling to the now
darkened bridal chamber on the second floor, there resulted
more or less confusion for a time in ascertaining identity just
as Lincoln had planned.

Lincoln, considering this a clever practical joke, wrote an
account of the affair in verse, calling the poem "The Chron-
icles." These verses as recited by Lincoln on the least provoca-
tion to all who would give him audience, gave the Grigsbys
great offense. When Lincoln ascertained that they were ag-
grieved, he went to the Grigsby home and disclaimed having
any purpose whatever of casting any aspersion upon their char-
acter or good name, stating that he only purposed having some
fun. He closed by turning over to them the original manuscript
containing the objectionable Chronicles, accompanying this ac-
tion with the promise that so far as he was concerned nothing
more would be said concerning them, a promise that he faith-
fully kept. This generosity of character so appealed to the
offended Grigsbys that they all became his friends.

As a sequel to this incident, it may be stated that James

Mutt: Lincoln in Indiana 41

Gentry, when some reference was made by the writer to the
"Chronicles of Reuben," laughed uproariously, and straightway
began reciting certain portions of "Abe's poetry" in great glee.
Gentry stated that "when Abe wrote his Chronicles they kicked
up a big hulla-ba-loo, but finally it all got quiet when Abe
handed them over to the Grigsbys."

Redmond Grigsby was yet living at the time of the inter-
view with Gentry, and in the course of Mr. Gentry's remarks
he incidentally mentioned the fact that only the day before this
he had met Grigsby and "they fell to talking about this double
wedding and the Chronicles in particular." Gentry remarked
to Grigsby : "Red, everybody's dead now but you, by gum ! I'd
let 'em come out." (Meaning the publication of the Chron-
icles.) But Mr. Grigsby said: "Jim, there's plenty time fer
that yet." It would appear from this remark that the original
document was in the possession of Redmond Grigsby, a brother
of Aaron. Mr. Grigsby died a short while after this, and what
became of the Chronicles, if he did in fact have them in his
possession, is not known.

LINCOLN'S HONESTY AND TRUTHFULNESS

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the
right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on in the work we are
in, to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne
the battle, and for his widow and his orphan; to do all which may achieve
and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

All of the discussions of Lincoln's life make pointed refer-
ence to his uncompromising honesty and truthfulness. So
prominent were these traits in his character as to induce his
friends to denominate him "Honest Abe" while he was quite
young.

Unfortunately, most of the emphasis has been so placed as
to leave the impression upon the minds of our youth that Lin-
coln learned honesty some time after reaching maturity ; leav-
ing the implication that either this trait was not noticed during
his youth ; or, if so, no reliable and trustworthy evidence of it
was obtained, justifying specific mention of it at any length.
This attitude is not only unjustifiable, judging by the facts and

42 Indiana Magazine of History

evidence testified to by his boyhood associates, but it is quite at
variance with all the generally accepted standards and theories
of life governing such matters.

It is, of course, not charged that dishonesty characterized
Mr. Lincoln's youth save in the single accusation made by some
of the earlier biographers against him in recounting the advice
given his flatboat partner, Allen Gentry, to pass counterfeit
money for genuine money. When all the circumstances con-
nected with this transaction are known, the inference and im-
plication of doubtful honesty proves to be groundless.

In the days when Lincoln and Gentry made their cele-
brated flatboat trip down the Mississippi river "wildcat" money
was quite as common as any other, particularly along the Ohio
and Mississippi rivers. Wildcat money was so frequently
offered in payment in the smaller transactions at that time that
it occasioned no more comment or concern than the depreciated
"trade dollar," Canadian quarter or dime did later in this sec-
tion. Thus, when Lincoln advised the passing of wildcat money
received in the course of their bartering during the day, he was
but following the custom practiced by the people of that time.

There never was any occasion for a revolution in Mr.
Lincoln's character or a deviation in any particular from his
youthful customs, as he did not at any time practice deception
or dishonesty. It may be said that whatever he may have
learned or acquired in the State of Illinois, certainly honesty
was not learned there. If his associates in that State, noting
his steadfast adherence to the old-fashioned trait of honesty,
denominated him "Honest Abe," it is but an indication that
his early training in the Indiana wilderness was so rooted and
grounded in him that he could not only withstand the social,
business and political temptations of life in Illinois as to chal-
lenge their admiration ; but the inference is that he was much
unlike most, if not all, other men in public life at that time.

Most men of mature years draw heavily upon the teach-
ings of childhood and youth. To put it in a way calculated to
meet with general acceptance, what a man becomes in morals
and in the practice of the great principles of honesty and truth-
fulness is largely determined in childhood and young manhood.
Never were these teachings better exemplified than in the life
of Abraham Lincoln.

Mutt: Lincoln in Indiana 43

When Lincoln, a bearded man, walked down Sangamon
river bottom, Illinois, for the first time, his character was
already formed. He brought with him from Indiana his rare
wit, humor and inexhaustible fund of anecdotes. He possessed
no bad habits. His school days were over. It is true that he
took a post-graduate course in Shakespeare and Burns, and
when John Calhoun, of Lecompton fame, offered him the posi-
tion as assistant surveyor, this graduate of the Indiana wilder-
ness, fresh from his reading of the classics — the King James
version of the Bible, Aesop's Fables, Lives of Franklin and
Washington — reported to Calhoun in just six weeks for duty,
having mastered this science in that incredibly short time, to
the astonishment of his benefactor.

One of Lincoln's teachers in Indiana was a man by the
name of Crawford. Lincoln was in his fourteenth year while
in attendance upon this particular term. On one occasion the
teacher observed that some liberties had been taken with the
pair of antlers over the door of the school room, one prong
having been broken, and on making this discovery he straight-
way instituted an inquiry to find the guilty culprit. Lincoln,
being quite tall and seeing this prong presenting a temptation
to swing upon it, yielded, with the result that the prong failed
to support his weight and fell to the ground. When the irate
teacher asked who was guilty, Lincoln stepped forth and
quickly volunteered the information :

I did, sir. I did not mean to do it, but I hung on it and it broke. I
wouldn't have done it if I'd a thought it'd a broke.

It is not at all necessary to suppose in attempting to show
the honesty and truthfulness of Lincoln that there were no
others in the school at that time who would have done as he
did under similar circumstances. Indeed, in every little school-
house of the land today there are those who would do this, but
since this circumstance did transpire as here related it is im-
portant in that it sets forth the inherent trait at such a period
in his life.

One of the neighbors of the Lincolns was Josiah Crawford,
for whom young Abraham often worked as a "hired man" and
his sister Sarah worked as "hired girl." "Old Cy Crawford,"

44 Indiana Magazine of History

as he was usually called, was more or less given to certain
peculiarities, being quite presumptuous and so penurious as to
be called "tight" or "close" by his neighbors, but withal possess-
ing many splendid traits. He was not an educated man, but
being what was called "handy," he was able to do almost any-
thing. He was a pioneer doctor and dentist, and in addition
he was a farmer. In this latter capacity he frequently em-
ployed young Lincoln.

Crawford possessed a small library which, to some ex-
tent, accounted for whatever superiority he had over some
of his neighbors. Lincoln borrowed all of these books, reading
and re-reading some of them, one being Weem's Life of Wash-
ington. It was the custom of Lincoln to carry a book with him
in the fields or in the "clearing," and this practice was not dis-
pensed with even when laboring for a neighbor. At every op-
portunity, whether at the noon hour or rest, or permitting a
"horse to breathe," he brought forth the book to read.

John Hanks, who lived with the Lincolns from 1823 to
1827, said, as recounted by Mr. Herndon:

When Abe and I returned to the house from work he would go to the
cupboard, snatch a piece of cornbread and sit down and read. We grubbed,
plowed, mowed and worked together barefooted in the fields. Whenever
Abe had a chance in the field while at work, or at the house, he would
stop and read. He kept the Bible and Aesop's Fable* always in reach and
read them over aud over again.

He kept up his daily custom of carrying a book with him
and reading as he walked, as well as reading until a late hour
at night, until established in the practice of his profession.
During his boyhood on securing a new book he frequently read
until midnight. His artificial light for this purpose was made
by gathering dry sticks and splinters and piling them beside
the jambs so that when the fire died down he freely laid some
of this tinder on the forestic and thus managed to read quite
well. One night after having obtained the aforementioned
copy of the Life of Washington from Crawford he read until
quite late, and on retiring to the loft he laid the book between
two of the logs — the "chinkin and daubin had worn away."
While he was wrapped in sleep a rain storm came and greatly
damaged the leaves and warped the cover. On making this dis-

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 45

covery the following morning Lincoln was mortified, and realiz-
ing the scarcity of books and keenly appreciating their value,
he very naturally supposed that Mr. Crawford would be "put
out" about it. Nevertheless, he took the damaged treasure
home and related somewhat in detail the circumstances of the
night before, proposing to do whatever the owner thought was
right and proper to make amends for his carelessness. Mr.
Crawford was not averse to driving a bargain, for it was his
custom with Lincoln "to dock him" when he failed to begin his
day's labor early enough or for any cause lost any time. In
this instance he proposed that Lincoln "pull fodder for three
days and they would call matters even." Lincoln entered no
protest at the time and energetically went to work. In relating
this circumstance to a gentleman in Rockport afterward, he
stated :

At the close of the second day my long arms had stripped every blade
off old Blue Nose's corn, and I reckon Cy ought to be satisfied ; at any
rate I am, but I think he was pretty hard on me.

We are indebted to Silas G. Pratt for an incident illustra-
tive of Lincoln's mingled goodness, truthfulness and honesty:

One morning when Lincoln, with his ax over his shoulder, was going
to work in the clearing, his step sister, Matilda Johnson, who had been
forbidden by her mother to follow him, slyly and unknown to her niothei
crept out of the house and ran after him. Lincoln was already a long
distance from the house among the trees following a deer path and whist-
ling as he walked along. He, of course, did not know the girl was coming
after him, and Matilda ran so softly that she made no noise to attract
his attention. When she came up close behind, she made a quick spring
and jumped upon his shoulders, holding on with both hands and pressing
her knees into his back, thus pulling him quickly to the ground. In falling
the sharp ax fell and cut her ankle very badly. As the blood ran out
the mischievous Matilda screamed with pain. Lincoln at once tore off
some cloth from the lining of his coat to stop the blood from flowing,
and bound up the wound as well as he could. Taking a long breath he
said: "Tilda, I am astonished. How could you disobey your mother so?"
Tilda only cried in reply, and Lincoln continued : '"What are you going to
tell mother about getting hurt?" "Tell her I did it with the ax," she
sobbed. "That will be the truth, won't it?" To which Lincoln replied
manfully : "Yes, that's the truth ; but it's not all the truth. You tell the
whole truth, Tilda, and trust your good mother for the rest." So Tilda
went limping home and told her mother all the truth. The good woman
felt so sorry for her that she did not even scold her.

46 Indiana Magazine of History

If, in speaking of honesty, we may make the term so
broad as to include not only right dealings in mere money or
business transactions, but fair-mindedness and an implied pur-
pose and intentional disposition to be such under trying circum-
stances, there is much that may be said illustrative of the fact
that Lincoln's life was the embodiment of truth and fair-
dealing. The boyhood associates of Lincoln stated that his
word was always considered good and that he could be de-
pended upon to do what he agreed to do. He was generally
trusted by his neighbors, and if necessity seemed to justify his
asking credit, as was sometimes the case, this was granted.

It was pretty generally conceded, however, by the old
neighbors of Lincoln and others who had personal acquaintance
with members of the family concerned in one transaction, that
there was one noted exception to the rule. The town of Gentry-
vilie was laid out by Mr. Gentry in the year 1824. Gentry was
a North Carolinian who settled in this section in the year 1818,
some two years after the coming of the Lincolns. He was a
man of some means for that day, as evidenced in his entering
twelve hundred acres of land and founding the town. He estab-
lished a store, encouraged the purchasing of lots and the erec-
tion of houses, and offered certain inducements to artisans and
trade-folks so that in a short while the little place became some-
what of a commercial center. Among those who had estab-
lished themselves in business there was a certain Mr. Jones.
On his proving to be prosperous and otherwise possessing ad-
vantages over Gentry, overtures were made to him and he ac-
cordingly disposed of his business to Gentry. In a short while
thereafter he embarked in business again, locating this time a
little distance from Gentryville, but near enough to cause the
trade to follow him. On perceiving that the future of the town
site was in jeopardy, Gentry proposed to Jones to move again
to Gentryville. This he did, and it was his store that Lincoln
frequented on Saturdays, rainy days and in the evenings.
Jones was a man of large influence, politically and otherwise.
He early professed a great liking for young Lincoln and freely
prophesied on more than one occasion that Lincoln would yet
be heard from in the world. He was thought to be rather ex-
travagant in some of his assertions and prophesies, however,

Mutt: Lincoln in Indiana 47

and there is little wonder that the citizens should so think when
they heard him venture to assert repeatedly that "Lincoln
would some day be President of the United States." Jones was
a man somewhat after the type of Denton Offut, the store-
keeper with whom Lincoln was associated a few years later in
Illinois. In fact, it appears that Lincoln's habit of frequenting
these small stores invariably impressed himself so strongly
upon the owners as to cause them to employ him. Lincoln
drove a team for Jones, packed and unpacked boxes of goods,
butchered and salted pork and at certain times performed some
of the more menial services in the store proper such as the
transfer of heavy and cumbersome wares from the cellar to the
main floor. These labors, however, were not continuous, but
merely occasional for a nominal sum as a wage — thirty cents
per day being the usual price. Jones was regarded as some-
what of a politician, and was a pronounced Jackson Democrat.
At one time he was the only subscriber to the Louisville
Journal in this place, and Lincoln availed himself of the privi-
lege of reading it aloud — a habit which became fixed in him as
in many another who was brought up in what was termed
"blab schools," where every scholar studied his lesson by read-
ing aloud during "books."

In later life Lincoln's practice was to read aloud, and he
had difficulty in grasping the meaning of the printed page un-
less his ears heard as well as his eyes saw.

The fact that young Lincoln became a "Jackson man" was
largely due to the association and influence of storekeeper
Jones, and it was from this man that he obtained the History
of the United States, one of the few books that had so much to
do in shaping his career. Just before the Lincolns left for Illi-
nois and a short while prior to Lincoln's reaching his majority,
he was in the store observing an extraordinarily large pair of
shoes. They were so large as to cause him to think that they
would "fit him," and being greatly in need of footwear he
asked the privilege of trying them on. This, of course, was
granted, and Lincoln found that they were just his size. He
thereupon indicated his desire to purchase them, but stated
that he did not have the money then and would not have it until
a date which he specified. The storekeeper shook his head and
refused the young man the desired credit.

48 Indiana Magazine of History

Years went by and Lincoln was to be inaugurated Presi-
dent. Very naturally some of his Gentryville friends were de-
sirous of witnessing these ceremonies, and a little party of five
made the journey to Washington, among them being Jones, the
storekeeper. No opportunity readily presenting itself to meet
their old friend until after the inaugural ceremonies were over,
they resolved to get in line and meet him at the general recep-
tion tendered. This suggestion was acted upon, and by a mere
chance, not at all by design, the storekeeper Jones came last.
As the first man of the little group approached, Lincoln,
straightway recognizing him, greeted him with a beaming
countenance, grasping the proffered hand in both of his and
saying: "Howdy, Jim." He readily recognized each one as they
approached, giving them a very cordial greeting, but when
Jones approached he was greeted with silence, although Lin-
coln shook hands with him. The storekeeper going on the sup-
position that he was not recognized, exclaimed : "Mr. President,
I'm from Gentryville also. My name is Jones. I reckon you
don't remember me." Whereupon Lincoln inclined his body
forward until his face was on the same level with the face of
Jones, and whispered in the ear of his old friend: "0 yes, Mr.
Jones, I remember you very well, and I remember that shoe
transaction also," smiling and otherwise giving him evidence
of his old-time friendship. It is but just to say that a portion
of this story was denied by Jones who said that he never re-
fused Lincoln the shoes, but that they were turned over to him
when Lincoln asked for credit. The supposition is that, on
seeing his old friend approaching him, Lincoln hit upon this
plan to have a bit of his old-time sport even if the occasion was
an inaugural reception. The story, however, as here recorded,
received general credence by the old friends of Lincoln, and
that it took place substantially as here detailed is doubtless
true.

"Nat" Grigsby and the storekeeper Jones later on during
the Lincoln administration called on the President at the White
House. We have the best authority for stating the fact, the
occasion and the ludicrous results of that visit — the testimony
of both Grigsby and Jones themselves. "Nat" Grigsby and
"Blue Nose" Crawford had been caricatured by Lincoln in some

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 49

of his doggerel poetry called the "Chronicles of Reuben."
Grigsby, long afterward, confessed that at the time this occa-
sioned considerable feeling on his part against Abe, but after a
time all was forgotten. That this was true and that Mr. Lin-
coln thought quite well of Grigsby is evidenced by a circum-
stance that transpired on the occasion of Lincoln's visit to
Gentryville during the campaign of 1844. Lincoln made
speeches both at Gentryville and at Carter's schoolhouse. It
was at the latter place that Lincoln, in the midst of his address,
recognizing Mr. Grigsby who came in late, exclaimed : "There's
Nat." Whereupon he quit the speech and platform and went
back to greet his old friend with the old-time warmth and boy-
ish enthusiasm, then returned to the front to continue his
speech. Whether it was this circumstance, or the numerous
other evidences of Lincoln's partiality for him that induced
him to believe Lincoln, as President, could and would appoint
him to some federal position, it is immaterial for our purpose.
At any rate, Grigsby was fully persuaded that he was amply
competent to serve in some capacity (and he was a man of
some ability) . He very naturally presumed upon the old-time
friendship of Lincoln, and accordingly called upon Jones and
proposed that he accompany him to Washington on a similar
mission in his own behalf. This met with hearty approval on
the part of Jones, and preparations were made for the journey.
They resolved to see the President in person rather than to
make formal application for a place in some other way. At
length the two old neighbors of the President appeared at the
White House. Lincoln, being apprised of their presence,
although many were in waiting, stepped into the room in which
they were seated and greeted them quite as if he had met them
at Carter's schoolhouse or Baldwin's blacksmith shop in Gen-
tryville. Unmindful of who might chance to be in the room or
what might be the construction placed upon his democratic
demeanor, he said: "Howdy, Nat," and "Howdy, Bill," and
otherwise by word and greeting conducted himself much as if
he were oblivious of the fact that he was President of the
United States.

Lincoln was never justly, at any time, accused of being
hypocritical, but that he could act the part well calculated to

50 Indiana Magazine of History

carry out his purpose is much in evidence in this as in other
instances. Major John Hay asserted that Lincoln "was a trim-
mer the equal of Halifax, but he never trimmed his principles."
There is discerned in this little circumstance with his boyhood
associates an ability to manage men and deal with difficult
situations in a way quite characteristic of him. After the
warm greeting and hand-shaking with his old friends, accom-
panied by such familiarities as "the laying on of hands," and
other evidences of appreciation of their visit, he requested that
they both accompany him to an adjoining room. Going on the
supposition that they were being taken to his private office
where they could have the opportunity of presenting their
claims, they quickly followed him, and were ushered into a
large room where Mrs. Lincoln sat. Neither of them having
ever met Mrs. Lincoln, they were accordingly introduced by the
President, and at the same time dismissed or disposed of as
follows : "Mrs. Lincoln, here are two of my boyhood friends
from Gentryville, Indiana, Mr. Grigsby and Mr. Jones."
Whether just at this point there was a sly wink, or some other
signal known only to the secret code of the President's family,
is, of course, purely in the realm of conjecture, but the pre-
ponderance of evidence is much in its favor, for he straightway
said after the formal introduction :

Mary, you know I'm pestered and bothered continually by people
coming here on the score of old acquaintance, as almost all of them have
an ax to grind. They go on the theory that I've got offices to dispense
with so numerous that I can give each one of them a place. Now here
are two friends that have come to pay me a visit just because they are my
friends, and haven't come to ask for any office or place. It is a relief to
have this experience. You know the room's full of folks out here
(pointing) waiting to see me about something or other, and I want you
to see that "Nat" and "Bill" here have a good time while they are with
us."

After the first Lady of the Land had given her promise to
do as requested, Lincoln returned to his labors. It is not pos-
sible to know whether the President went to his private office
and sought relief by giving way to unrestrained laughter or
not, but he doubtless consoled himself with the fact that if in
the field of diplomacy matters of great moment could always
be disposed of as readily as was true in this particular instance,

Mutt: Lincoln in Indiana 51

he had reason to regard himself equal to any exigency that
might arise. The two office-seekers, accustomed only to the
dames and damsels of Gentryville, gowned in linsey-wolsey,
and whose colloquial speech was quite their o*wn, were suddenly
found in the presence of a "fine lady," and there is no occasion
for surprise when they asserted that both of them heartily
agreed that discretion was the better part of valor and they
accordingly beat a hasty retreat, returning to Indiana without
so much as mentioning the real object of their visit to the Capi-
tal. When twitted about their failure by some of their neigh-
bors, they both confessed that "Abe was too much for them,"
and especially after he had said what he did to Mrs. Lincoln
about his old friends asking for office.

LINCOLN'S FREEDOM FROM BAD HABITS

In it we shall And a stronger bondage broken, a viler slavery manu-
mitted, a greater tyrant deposed; and when there shall be neither a
slave nor a drunkard on earth, how proud the title of that land which
may truly claim to be the birthplace and cradle of both those revolutions
that have ended in victory.

Lincoln as a youth was remarably free from bad or vicious
habits. He was in general good favor with all of his associates
and was dutiful and obedient to his father and mother. His
temperamental makeup was such as to win friends and to hold
them. He, as has already been indicated, never at any time in
his boyhood, used intoxicating liquors, although this custom
was generally prevalent. Since Lincoln's habit was to frequent
the grocery store in Gentryville in company with Dennis
Hanks, where much drinking was indulged in, his refusal to
drink intoxicants is somewhat remarkable. He professed to
have a distaste for intoxicants of all sorts, and also abstained
as a matter of principle. In later life he stated that "he had
no desire for intoxicating liquors and did not care to associate
with drinking men." His terrible arraignment of the liquor
traffic before the Washingtonian society is familiar to all, and
it is highly probable that his strong convictions expressed in
later years on that subject were to some extent formed by
noting, as he did while a resident at Gentryville, the evil effects
of its use by many of his associates.

52 Indiana Magazine of History

Wesley Hall stated that his father frequently employed
both the elder Lincoln and his son Abraham to labor for him
as carpenters as well as to perform work incident to the suc-
cessful operation of a tanyard. Hall asserted that young Lincoln
frequently pushed the plane at a workbench preparing planks
for the father's use in the construction of cupboards and other
pieces of household furniture. In this connection Hall laugh-
ingly recalled a boyish act of his. On one occasion when Abra-
ham was laboring at the bench with the plane, Hall crawled
beneath the long bench and lay down upon his back just oppo-
site Lincoln's feet. He was peculiarly struck with the great
length of the young carpenter's shoes, and reaching forth he
selected a wooden ribbon and was busily engaged in measuring
the foot when Lincoln noticed this performance and "yanked
him out."

In the performance of the work connected with the tannery
the elder Hall frequently employed a number of men, and it was
the custom, when weather permitted, to take the noon meal in
the grove near the tanyard rather than to go to the house.
Hall stated that when the food had been made ready and spread
out on a rude table, and dinner was announced, Abe invariably
walked to a certain large forest tree whose roots had grown in
such a manner as to form a sort of rustic bench. There seating
himself, leaning back against the trunk, he drew forth from
the folds of his loose fitting waumus or blouse a book and be-
gan to read, rather than go to the table as the other men did
to eat. When asked if Lincoln did not also eat the noon meal,
and why he did not do so with the others, he replied :

Certainly Abe et dinner, but don't you know he never drank, and them
times the black bottle would be passed around purty often, so Abe would
say to me "You see, Wesley, I don't drink and the rest of the men do, and
if I was to eat when they do and not drink with them, they'd think may
be I was smart, and so I jest hit upon this plan of bringing along my book
with me and reading while they eat. I eat after they get through — in
plenty time to go to work when they do, and that a way I git to read some
and at the same time I don't go against a custom that they think is all
right even if I don't.

A diligent inquiry among Lincoln's boyhood friends for
everything characteristic or peculiar to him elicited the fact
among other things that he did not indulge in intemperate

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 53

language. It might be alleged that there was an exception in
the frequent use of the by-word "I jings," which seems to have
followed him by way of Illinois to the White House.

That young Lincoln was extremely awkward and homely
to a marked degree is evidenced by the testimony of all of his
early friends. Being seated his stature did not impress itself,
but a close observer would note that his lower extremities were
of such proportions that a marble or ball placed upon his knee
would roll toward the body. His gait was exceptional and
peculiar to him. He made rather long strides as compared to
many tall men who, in attemptong to keep step, form the habit
of a jerky, premature stride. Lincoln lifted his feet squarely
from the ground and in like manner planted them, so that the
foot did not bend at the toes or the weight of the body rest
momentarily upon the heel; however, he was slightly pigeon-
toed. His walk therefore, while not to say cunning, was
stealthy, and possessing great bodily vigor he could walk long
distances in a short while.

Mrs. Polly Agnew, whose maiden name was Richardson,
and who was the mother of a number of children, some of
whom became men of considerable local prominence — among
whom was Doctor Mason, a physician well-known in his day
throughout southern Indiana — often related a circumstance
that took place on her arrival in Indiana, in which Lincoln
bore a conspicuous part, and which furnishes a splendid field
for a painter. The Richardsons were pioneers in Spencer
county, floating down the Ohio river in a boat and landing at
the site of the present beautiful town of Grandview. Their
arrival was sometime after the coming of the Lincolns. The
landing had been effected, and they desired to penetrate the in-
terior some distance before locating. They had their ox-teams
and wagon (save for the wheels), so the father and son felled
a large gum tree, and sawing off blocks or circular slabs of
such thickness as would prove suitable for wheels, they soon
were ready to begin their journey through the unknown wilder-
ness. No white man had as yet made settlement in this part of
the country. The wagon was loaded with bedding, cooking
utensils and such other things as they would at first need, and
with the mother and daughter, Polly, the narrator of the inci-

54 Indiana Magazine of History

dent, they started on their tedious way, leaving behind them
many things in the boat for which they had to make a second
trip. The choice of a farm location was by midday decided
upon. In the midst of the great forest they came upon a cluster
of trees so situated as to enable them by cutting brush and lay-
ing these on poles placed in forks to erect a brush lean-to or
brush house, which would serve them temporarily. The mother
and daughter were left in the midst of the great forest alone
while the men returned to the boat for another load. A storm
came up, nightfall was approaching, and the wagon had not
returned. In the midst of their anxiety there suddenly ap-
peared out of the forest a stranger of gigantic stature, dressed
in coon-skm cap, hunting shirt and buckskin breeches, and
bearing a gun. He came up smiling and, by way of explana-
tion for his presence, stated that he lived a short distance
north, and having just learned that a new family was moving
into the community he had come down to render any service
needed. When informed by Mrs. Richardson that the men folks
had gone to the river for another load and were expected to
return at any time, the stranger remarked : "Well, ladies, I'm
quite sure they cannot get back tonight for the rain has inter-
fered, and so I'll just stay with you and see that no harm comes
to you during the night."

This information and proffered help was anything but re-
assuring to the frightened ladies. The tall stranger, acting
upon his own suggestion, now stepped to a large tree fronting
the lean-to, and seating himself with the gun placed across his
lap, leaned against the trunk, thus evidencing his disposition to
remain on guard. Seeing this, Mrs. Richardson stepped into
the brush house and she and the daughter held a whispered
consultation. It was agreed that while the stranger might
prove to be more dangerous than any foe of the woods, yet the
mother suggested that "he had a good face." After a few
moments in conversation they observed that the stranger had
laid down his gun and began dragging a large limb toward the
brush house. The mother and daughter both ventured out near
him and requested to know what he meant by such procedure.
Whereupon he smiled and said: "Ladies, the woods around
here are full of wolves and bears, and we've got to have a bon-

Mutt: Lincoln in Indiana 55

fire tonight or they might give trouble." When the mother re-
marked that they entertained no fear of wolves, the man
laughed right heartily and said: "You just wait and we'll see
if there isn't about two women around here somewhere that'll
get pretty badly scared before long." With that remark he
began the search for dry branches and limbs of fallen trees,
and this he continued doing until there was collected quite a
pile.

When darkness had settled down over them and the wagon
had not returned as the stranger had ventured to prophesy, the
ladies became more or less reconciled to the presence of the
man. He accepted the food they prepared, but refused to go into
the lean-to. An hour or so had passed, when the stranger, who
all this time was watched from within with some remaining
suspicion, called to them that they need have no fears of wolves
who by this time were howling in the distance. Ere long these
denizens of the night ventured quite near, and the ladies, thor-
oughly frightened, requested that he come into the lean-to.
The stranger then approached the bonfire and requested Mrs.
Richardson and her daughter to "step out and take a look at the
green-eyes." This they did, and the daughter exclaimed in her
fright: "Why, mother, there is a thousand of them. What
would we have done alone?" The tall stranger laughed and
said, addressing the young lady : "Miss, there is not more than
a half dozen of the varmints, and every one of them is a cow-
ard. Now you just see if they are not." Taking a fire brand
and waving it vigorously, the "green eyes" vanished and the
howling was heard in the distance. The manifest danger con-
fronting the ladies by the presence of such animals drew them
nearer to their protector, and they acted on his suggestion to
"go in and try and get some sleep while he kept watch." When
morning broke the stranger announced his intention of return-
ing home, saying as he started : "I'll find out today if your
men folks get back all right, which I reckon they will, but if
they don't, I'll be back here tonight and we'll keep the 'thousand
pairs of green eyes' at a safe distance."

This was the introduction the Richardson family had to the
future President, for the tall stranger who kept watch through
the night was Abraham Lincoln. The Richardsons and the Lin-

56 Indiana Magazine of History

coins became fast friends. It was William Richardson who
stated that on one occasion when they Avere preparing to build
a corn crib, and some heavy pieces of timber were to be put in
place, the men engaged in doing this were making hand spikes
with which to carry them. Lincoln chanced to come up and
asked what they were going to do with hand spikes. When in-
formed that they were being prepared to carry the heavy tim-
bers Lincoln remarked that he could shoulder and carry the
sticks himself, and at once acting upon the suggestion he actu-
ally performed the feat unaided. Richardson believed that it
would have taken the combined strength of three or four men
to do what Lincoln did.

It was this same Richardson who related another circum-
stance indicating the phenomenal strength of Lincoln. A
chicken house was to be moved and some preparation was being
made to do this when Lincoln picked it up bodily and carried it
for some distance. Richardson thought that it "weighed at
least six hundred pounds, and maybe more."

Whether it was this romantic meeting of Polly Richardson
in the brush lean-to, or whether it was due to certain traits of
character discerned in her by Lincoln, particularly her consid-
erate kindness of heart in befriending him in certain ways, that
attracted him, in any case he often "kept company with her."
Aunt Polly, as she was generally called, was a lady of more
than average intelligence. While she was not educated, yet in
her use of language this was not particularly noticeable. She
was never any more delighted than when surrounded by those
who were anxious to know of some of her pioneer. experiences,
and particularly those pertaining to Lincoln. She often told of
being accompanied by Lincoln to spelling bees, play parties, and
to church, and even asserted that she was Lincoln's first sweet-
heart. If there be any reluctance on the part of anyone to ac-
cord this rather enviable distinction to the old lady who thus
made the claim, it may be said in her behalf that her frankness
in relating certain circumstances pertaining to this, and the re-
gret occasioned by not having wisdom enough to foresee in her
girlhood Lincoln's great career may to some extent plead more
eloquently than any mere statement of fact by the writer.

Mitrr: Lincoln in Indiana 57

Yes. I was Abe*s first sweetheart.

He'd take rue to spelling bees and play parties and to ineetin" and the
like, but still I can't say that I wanted him to go with me though. Still
Abe was always mighty good, and I never found any fault with him ex-
cepting he was so tall and awkward. All the young girls my age made fun
of Abe. They'd laugh at him right before his face, but Abe never 'peared
to care. He was so good and he'd just laugh with them. Abe tried to go
with some of them, but no sir-ee, they'd give him the mitten every time,
just because he was as I say so tall and gawky, and it was mighty awk-
ward 1 can tell you trying to keep company with a fellow as tall as Abe
was. But still Abe was always so good and kind I never sacked him. but
bein's I didn't have no other company them days when us young folks
would all start to ineetin' or somewhex-e else that away, I'd let Abe take
me. I'd sometimes get right put out the way some of the girls treated him,
a laughing and saying things, and so when we'd get off to ourselves I'd
give them a piece of my mind about it. And then they'd all say that it
is too bad the way we do, because Abe's so good, but they'd appear to
forget all about it. for the very next time they'd do the same way. Abe
wanted me to marry him, but I refused. I suppose if I had known he
was to be President some day, I'd a took him.

The writer was once a schoolmaster, and was again and
again made to think of Lincoln on daily seeing the children of
the daughter of Colonel Lehmonowsky, one of Napoleon's old
soldiers. The oldest son, Adam, was six feet and five inches in
height ; Charles, six feet and four inches ; John, six feet and
three inches ; Anna, five feet and eleven inches ; Sallie, five feet
and nine inches, and Joseph, the baby, at fifteen years of age
was six feet and six inches ! This family was remarkable not
only for their great stature, but were giants mentally as well.
The extreme stature of the youngest member, his shuffling,
shambling gait, and great good nature, with some degree of
humor and wit, reminded one continually of Lincoln.

Not far from where Lincoln was reared there occurred a
wedding some years since that made the story of Lincoln's first
sweetheart seem all the more plausible, especially that part
which relates to his great stature and awkwardness.

A veritable son of Anak, six feet and six inches in stature,
married a diminutive little lady four feet and six tall. The
nuptial bands were solemnized in. a "meeting house" in the
presence of the entire countryside. The wedding was quite
simple throughout. There were no flower girls, no best man
nor bridesmaids ; no soloist sang "O, promise me," nor did the

58 Indiana Magazine of History

bride reach the Hymeneal Altar leaning on the arm of her
father, keeping step to the strains of Mendelssohn's Wedding
March. Instead, at the appointed hour, which followed the ser-
mon, the bride and groom came down the center aisle unat-
tended ; the groom making long, ungainly strides and the bride
holding on to his arm akimbo with the tip of her fingers, while
some wag in the choir who had a fine sense of appropriateness
pitched the old time camp meeting hymn, "Leaning on the
Everlasting Arms," and by the time the happy, but somewhat
embarrassed couple reached the chancel, the choir lustily joined
in the chorus.

While Lincoln was acting as ferryman at the mouth of
Anderson creek, a corn husking took place in the neighborhood
which he of course attended. At such times, as at log rollings
and raisings, the work was divided equally into two parts and
captains elected, who "chose up", thus dividing the crowd pre-
paratory to a race. On the particular occasion above referred
to, Lincoln while busily husking away, intent on making his
side "beat", kept up a running fire of humorous remarks at the
expense of the other side, directing his remarks toward one
man. This individual, not possessing a temperamental make-up
such as to endure this long, accordingly gave way to his anger
and hurled an ear of corn at Lincoln across the rail that divided
the pile of corn. Taking good aim he threw the hard, horny
nub at Lincoln, striking him full in the breast and cutting such
a gash as to leave a scar which Lincoln carried to his grave.
Lincoln did not reply in kind against his assailant, but his an-
ger arose.

There were some customs more or less peculiar to this part
of the State in Lincoln's day, continuing for years thereafter,
and among these was the celebration of the New Year. The
ceremony, while lacking the refinement and more poetic senti-
ments usually supposed to have attended the Yuletide in north-
ern Europe, yet considering that it was a backwoods custom
during the holiday week the method of celebration possessed a
sense of appropriateness. At the midnight hour, just as the
old year was dying and the New Year about to be ushered in,
large numbers of men and boys with firearms assembled before
a farm residence, and without any warning a voice began re-

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 59

citing, rather stump fashion, a bit of crude verse which was
called "the New Year's Speech." The person chosen to recite
this was usually one possessing the gift of "oratory." Know-
ing that Lincoln was much given to public exhibitions and dis-
posed to make addresses on numerous occasions, it was pre-
sumed that he frequently made the New Year's Speech. This
fact, however, was not certainly established. Since the custom
of the pioneers has passed away, with many other things pecul-
iar to them, the New Year's Speech brought from the South is
here given :

Awake ! Awake ! my neighbor dear

And to my wish pray lend an ear.

The New Year is now at your door,

The Old Year is past and comes no more ;

And I for you wish a Happy Year

That you from bad luck may keep clear ;

That your family, and all the rest

May with content be ever blest.

That you may be free and able

To feed the hungry at your table ;

That your barns and all your cribs

May with much grain be stocked

Your fields and meadows handsomely flocked

And scarcity not be known.

But mind there is the Blessed Hand

Who gives and takes at His command.

But now before I make an end,

For too much time I cannot spend,

Shall I salute you with my gun,

Or would you wish the report to shun?

Just here the speaker paused and if granted permission to
fire his gun, the speech was resumed as follows :

Now, since you gave me leave,

I do now here declare

The noise shall sound throughout the air,

Sausage and pudding will be right

To satisfy our appetite.

Whiskey Bounce or Apple Brandy,

Or any liquor that comes handy.

And we will receive it with thanks to thine

And this is the end and wish of mine.

60 Indiana Magazine of History

Just as the speech was finished a volley or two was fired,
and when ample justice had been done to sausage and pudding,
as well as satisfying the thirst, the guns were reloaded and
another house sought. This was kept up throughout the re-
mainder of the night, the speech being repeated at each place.

LINCOLN'S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE CHURCH AND

RELIGION

Nobly sustained as the government has been by all the churches. I
would utter nothing which might in the least appear invidious agaiust
any * * * q0(j Diess an the churches, and blessed be God who in this
great trial giveth us the churches.

During Mr. Lincoln's early life he was disposed more or
less toward fatalism, not that there was any one act of his,
or any single utterance by which this fact could be estab-
lished, so much as there was discerned an approach toward
all undertakings in life with this conviction dogging his foot-
steps. These fatalistic beliefs were so general among the
people of that day as to include practically all.

Lincoln seems to have yielded so far to the ultra Calvin-
istic teachings characterizing the pulpit efforts and emphasis
of that day as to become more or less submissive to what was
conceded to be the stern and inevitable decrees of Fate. This
strange belief must not be confounded with that bold and
open opposition to religious faith, as was the boast of some,
but was in fact a religious and Christian interpretation of the
teachings of the scriptures, especially peculiar to the primi-
tive Baptists.

Lincoln was not a communicant of the Little Pigeon
Baptist church, although his father, mother and sister were;
likewise the Johnsons, his step-sisters and step-brother. His
father and mother united with this church by letter, thus indi-
cating their connection with the church in Kentucky.

While Lincoln was more or less indoctrinated with the
fatalistic tendencies of a theology generally prevalent at the
same time he was not at all disposed to accept the common
literal interpretation of the Scriptures and in consequence
he held aloof from formal union with the church.

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 61

That we may more fully appreciate to what extent some
of these teachings influenced the parishioners, a circumstance
may be detailed that transpired in this region where Lin-
coln reached his majority, although many years after; but it
will perhaps serve quite well by way of illustration to show
this same religious emphasis lingering many decades later,
and for that matter may yet be found in this region as well
as elsewhere.

An aged man, just two years younger than Lincoln (well
known to the writer) who was much given to theological dis-
putation, gave as his belief that "what is to be will be, even
if it never comes to pass;" that "God had decreed and fore-
ordained certain things," and they "were bound to come to
pass;" that there was no use to flee from imminent danger
since each one of us was to die in a certain way, at a certain
time, and no effort on our part could possibly prevent this. If
we were to be drowned, or shot, or die of disease, then no mat-
ter what might befall us prior to the appointed hour this
event would eventually take place according to Divine ap-
pointment.

This particular gentleman was quite aged when the
horse-power threshing machine was succeeded by the steam
thresher. A large crowd had gathered to witness the strange
engine, and while many of them were gathered about it the
water began foaming. This circumstance alarmed the en-
gineer who was anything else but expert, and he hurriedly
indicated his fears by announcing his intention of reaching a
point of safety. Acting upon his better judgment he started
at a lively pace out into an adjoining field, and without any
need of further urging when the crowd witnessed his flight
they all joined in. The old brother of fatalistic beliefs
brought up the rear, by reason of infirmities of age and not
because of any wish to be found in the extreme rear. After
a safe distance had been reached and sufficient time had
elapsed to allow all danger to pass, the engineer ventured
back to his post again and pretty soon he announced that the
"Iron Horse was all right." Whereupon certain adherents
of the Methodist faith, who had been again and again sub-
jected to humiliation and defeat by the superior ability of the

62 Indiana Magazine of History

old Baptist brother to argue, now turned upon him merci-
lessly. After a good-natured laugh had been indulged in at
his expense, the old gentleman remarked : "I've got as good a
Baptist heart in me as any man, but I've got a cowardly pair
of Methodist legs and they run away with me."

Lincoln would have enjoyed the laugh at the old Bap-
tist brother's expense but the fatalistic teachings so pos-
sessed him that he would have still found a lurking belief that
all such events were predetermined, and that this grip of Fate
possessed us all. Later in life he threw off the major portion
of these beliefs, but not all of them.

He retained the basic principle of that theology which
taught the wholesome doctrine that "the Almighty hath his
purposes." Not only did he believe that "if we did not do
right, God was going to let us go our own way to ruin," but
expressed the belief that "the Almighty was going to compel
us to do right in order that he might destroy slavery, give
success to our arms, and maintain our unity as a nation."
He further said :

I do not believe that He will do these things so much because we
desire them as that they accord with His plans of dealing with this nation.
I think He means that we shall do more than we have yet done in fur-
therance of His plans, and He will open the way for our doing it. I have
felt His hand upon me in great trials and submitted to His guidance, and
I trust that as He shall further open the way T will be ready to walk
therein, relying on His Help and trusting in His Goodness and wisdom.

It is a small matter as to what particular creed or sect
this theology might properly belong, as compared to the
greater fact that he had thrown himself fully upon the Al-
mighty, and in so doing he worthily took his place along side
of Moses, Joshua and Paul.

His early theology made the heavens brass and the un-
changing decrees made God stern, exacting and demanding
justice. His later faith was so modified by sorrows and trials
as to believe in the efficacy of prayer, and he came to see God's
beneficence and mercy mingled with His justice. Lincoln's
daily habit from early youth was to read the Scriptures and
give himself to prayer. It would appear that this fact and
the sentiment and spirit of some of his great State papers

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 63

would be quite sufficient to have prevented Ingersol and others
possessing liberalistic views to assert, as they were accus-
tomed to do, that he was an unbeliever.

That Lincoln, after reaching Illinois, passed through a
period of religious doubt, even to the extent of questioning
the authenticity of the Bible and denying the divinity and
sonship of Christ, is undoubtedly true. However, there was
nothing ever uttered by him either in any public manner or
in private conversation while a resident of Indiana that even
so much as indicated any liberalistic views or tendencies. He
made no pretentions, however, of being a Christian during
his youth ; that is, he made no public profession, and was not
regarded as such by his associates. Mr. Lincoln certainly
was not a Christian in the orthodox sense until sometime
after reaching the White House, if indeed he ever became
such as measured by certain formulas. Herndon, Colonel
Lamon and Major John Hay all stoutly maintained that he
never changed his religious beliefs at all.

In making the simple statement that young Lincoln was
not a Christian, nor so regarded by his associates, it would be
altogether misleading unless it be properly understood. Their
standards and his for presuming upon such a claim were of
course measured by the practice of the local church in de-
manding the observance of certain forms and subscribing to
certain tenets. It was, of course, not allowed that any one
could be so presumptuous as to set forth the claim that he
was a Christian, independent of these. Lincoln not having
done this was, of course, not considered as being a Christian.

It may be truly said, without casting any aspersion upon
the character and profession of some, that there were others,
indeed many, who composed the membership of Little Pigeon
Baptist church in Lincoln's day who possessed doubtful moral-
ity; certainly they failed to measure up to the requirements
of Christian standards of living generally in vogue today. It
is not charged that gross and flagrant wrongdoing character-
ized any one of them, but it is claimed that delinquencies in
many matters were the rule.

The ministry themselves were often indeed quite gen-
erally given to dram drinking, and certainly this was true of

64 Indiana Magazine of History

substantially all the parishioners — women as well as men.
It will be seen, therefore, that these well-meaning pioneers
hedged up the door of entrance into the kingdom by erroneous
theological emphasis upon some matters by demanding of all
who sought fellowship with them that they subscribe to these,
but too often their own delinquencies and shortcomings were
such as to be only too painfully apparent.

Lincoln, given to approaching any and all things along
lines of reason, could not fail to note the inconsistencies in
profession and practice. Possessing morals quite beyond
most people, abstaining from the use of intoxicants and to-
bacco, temperate in speech and painstakingly honest and
truthful, given to reading the Bible daily, and regarded as
possessing such a wholesome amount of common sense and
sound judgment as to be selected to adjudicate all differences
arising among his fellows, it may therefore be seen that while
Lincoln made no profession of religious faith in conformity
to the standards of the time, yet his character was quite be-
yond that of others.

For this youth, who if not educated in the ordinary ac-
ceptation of the term, possessed more knowledge even then
perhaps than most of us are ready to allow, and being ac-
quainted for instance, as we know that Lincoln was, with the
movement of the heavenly bodies, and then to hear in the
Sunday sermon the maledictions of Heaven hurled at "eddi-
cated" folks who presumed to think that the earth was round,
that it "revolved upon its axle tree," and similar animadver-
sions, one can deeply sympathize with a disposition to refrain
from formal union with such a class.

Again, for young Lincoln to assemble with these wor-
shippers in Little Pigeon church; the preacher and people to
engage as they often did in a give and take sort of fashion in
the coarse, crude jokes of doubtful propriety anywhere —
much less in a place of worship — hurling at one another,
albeit good-naturedly, hilarious repartee and scintillating
witticisms better suited to the school house debates; and
when the minister suggested that it was time for worship,
for some old brother to start the hymn, "How Tedious and
Tasteless the Hours," pitching it in a strange key, putting in

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 65

an unconscionable number of quarter and half rests, and then
. for the leader, perhaps, at the close of the stanza to expec-
torate his ambier in a belated sort of manner, no matter
where, preparatory to another effort; and when that was
finished and the sermon was entered upon, with all of the
vials of wrath poured forth, and anathemas heaped upon the
heads of offenders (as was often the case) in such a fashion
as to indicate enjoyment in anticipation, with a great deal of
sound and little sense; therefore, for a youth of Lincoln's
purity of character and sense of propriety, faculty of reason-
ing and freedom from such habits above referred to, to re-
frain from formal union with the church is after all not a
thing to excite wonder or provoke harsh criticism.

In calling attention to some of the foregoing things pe-
culiar to the pioneer days generally prevailing, and even today
found in Kentucky and Tennessee, there is no disposition to
excuse Mr. Lincoln from the mistake certainly chargeable to
him of refraining from formal union with the church at a
later period. It is hoped that the treatment here offered con-
cerning the crude manner of worship and erroneous emphasis
of the primitive Baptists will not be taken as an intentional
slight upon that branch of the church. (The writer's fore-
bears were of that faith.) While some justification for young
Lincoln's attitude toward this class is here set forth, yet it is
manifestly true that this particular church so generally prev-
alent in large sections of the country during the formative
period, furnished the sole means of worship, and so admin-
istered to the spiritual needs of the people as abundantly to
justify its existence.

The question of Mr. Lincoln's religious attitude later in
life has provoked considerable discussion. Substantially all
creeds, like all political parties, have claimed him. Those en-
tertaining liberalistic views have been quite as free as any
in asserting the claim that Lincoln was of their number. This
was the boast of Colonel Ingersol, of agnostic fame. Mr.
Herndon, his law partner, said that his religious faith was
best represented by the teachings of Theodore Parker; and
he and others possessing religious beliefs that classed them as
deists were disposed to claim Mr. Lincoln as possessing a

66 Indiana Magazine of History

like faith. This class in particular have challenged those who
claim Mr. Lincoln as a Christian to point out in all of his
utterances at any time a sentence where the name of Jesus
Christ was used. This attitude is wholly unworthy of such
men as Herndon, Lamon and others. Lincoln told his par-
ticular friend, Bishop Simpson, that he did pass through a
period of doubt and distrust of the Scriptures, but that he
later came to see the folly of such. It is a noteworthy fact,
however, that Mr. Lincoln's language in reference to Deity
was such as to give no offense to any faith or creed.

It is believed that no one today would be disposed to
undertake the hopeless and thankless task of attempting to
substantiate the claim that Mr. Lincoln was not a Christian
in view of all the evidence at hand to the contrary. With a
sincere purpose of doing the right as "God gave him to see
the right," far removed as he was above the loose morality of
strong partisan politics, refusing as he did repeatedly to be
governed by notable examples of expediency, and mere con-
ventionalities; absolutely unmindful of probable accusations
in his departure from an age-long custom of indirection in
diplomacy; implicitly trusting in the plain people; relying
upon the "gracious favor of Almighty God," with no disposi-
tion at any time to substitute expediency for conscience ; will-
ing rather to lose popular applause or any mere temporary
advantage than even to appear to take liberties with possible
success by a firm adherence to the eternal principles of jus-
tice and truth ; with a sublime patience and unexampled for-
titude, he refused to be moved by the clamor of public opinion.

He v/as a statesman without craft; a politician without
cunning; a great man with many virtues and no vices; a
ruler without the arrogancy of pride and the bigotry of
power; ambitious without mere selfish personal gratification,
and successful without becoming vain-glorious. If that
Hebrew lawgiver and leader, Moses, in that unprecedented
wilderness march with a horde of newly liberated slaves, felt
that faith was depleted or courage run low, he could and did
betimes climb the mountain stairway and cry to the God of
battles, and Jehovah came down "in trailing clouds of Glory;"
or if he were harassed by the pursuing foe, or flanked by fiery

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 67

serpents, he could afford to be content, for was not the
Almighty himself on the picket line in a cloud by day and a
pillar of fire by night? But not so this later liberator whose
tall form was stooping under the terrible burdens, both North
and South. What wonder that betimes we see him on his
knees in the White House in prayer with Bishop Simpson, or,
as when Lee flushed with victory on the gory fields of Freder-
icksburg and Chancellorsville turned his victorious legions
north once more, Lincoln fell upon his face and cried to the
God of Battles : "This is your war. The North can't stand an-
other Chancellorsville. You stand by our boys at Gettysburg
and I'll stand by you ;" and he did.

YOUNG LINCOLN ON THE STUMP

My opinion is that no State can in any way lawfully get out of the
Union. It is the duty of the President to run the machine as it is. I
reckon that it will be some time before the front door sets up house keep-
ing on its own account.

The boyhood friends of Lincoln were quite pronounced
in stating that while Lincoln was ever ready to enter into
all of their boyish sports, especially to accompany them to any
place where there was a crowd, he could not be induced either
to play, fish, or accompany them on any expedition of any
character if he had in his possession a new book. Lincoln
himself, in later life said that he borrowed all the books to
be found for a radius of fifty miles. His habit was to commit
to memory such portions as particularly pleased him, making
copious notes on paper, if he had it, but if he did not (as was
frequently the case) he made free use of boards, the wooden
fire shovel or any smooth surface presenting itself. He was
an omnivorous reader, devouring anything offered. He regu-
larly borrowed the Louisville Journal from Jones, the store-
keeper, and a temperance paper and religious publication
from a neighbor by the name of Woods. Lincoln had strong
convictions on the subject of temperance, and in reading the
publication borrowed from Woods was encouraged to commit
some of his own thoughts to paper. He took this to his
old friend and was pleased when "Uncle Woods" said that

68 Indiana Magazine of History

"for sound sense it was better than anything in the paper."
Woods in turn showed the manuscript to a Baptist preacher
who was so delighted with it as to believe that it was beyond
anything found in the temperance journal, and proposed
sending it to the editor at some point in Ohio. It is said that
this article was accepted and appeared in the paper, to the
great delight of Lincoln as well as of his patron and friend,
Woods.

Succeeding so well in this venture, he attempted a politi-
cal treatment, taking as his theme, National Politics. The
subject doubtless suggested itself to him on reading the
Louisville paper. This manuscript was submitted to his old
friend Woods, as before, who showed it to Judge John
Pitcher, an attorney residing at Rockport. Pitcher on read-
ing the article exclaimed: "The world can't beat it." This
remark greatly encouraged young Lincoln, and he journeyed
to Rockport to call upon Pitcher at his office. It is claimed that
subsequently Pitcher loaned Lincoln law books, and showed
him considerable attention, such as "drawing him out" in
conversation on finding him a great talker and quite original
in his ideas and methods of investigation.

The essay on National Politics, while not preserved en-
tire, has been in part, and from these sentences some notion
may be formed as to Lincoln's ideas at that early period :

The American government is the best form of government for an
intelligent people; it ought to be kept sound and preserved forever. * * *
General education should be fostered and carried all over the country ; and
the constitution should be saved, the Union perpetuated and the laws
revered, respected and enforced.

Lincoln's plea for educational advantages is pathetic
when his own disadvantages were so marked.

Among those pioneers in this section who, after attaining
old age, were rich in the remembrances of former years, was
Captain John LaMar. The LaMars were among the first setr
tiers in this part of the State. Captain LaMar witnessed the
killing of the last Indian by the whites in this region, there
having been more or less trouble between the two races prior
to the Battle of Tippecanoe as well as such minor engage-
ments as the Pigeon Roost Massacre. However, by the time

Mum Lincoln in Indiana 69

the Lincolns settled here the Indians had nearly all left this
section. The writer had as a parishioner in his church, Mrs.
LaMar, a lady four years younger than Mr. Lincoln, and
being a neighbor, of course knew him quite well. Captain
LaMar, on one occasion, was riding to mill with his father
along the road leading past the Lincoln cabin. They observed
a boy perched upon the top of a staked-and-ridered fence,
reading and so intently engaged that he did not notice their
approach. The elder LaMar was so impressed with this fact
that he remarked to his son :

John, look at that boy yonder ! You mark my words, he will make a
smart man out of himself. I may not see it, but you see if my words
don't come true.

Captain LaMar lived to witness the fulfillment of his
father's prophesy. He was present on the occasion of the
unveiling of the Nancy Hanks monument in 1902.

"Nat" Grigsby said:

Lincoln was always at school quite early and attended to his studies
diligently. He always stood at the head of his class and passed the rest
of us rapidly in his studies. He lost no time at home, and when he was
not at work he was at his books.

The schoolmates of Lincoln stated that he was never rude
on the playground, and was usually made choice of when an
arbiter was needed in adjusting difficulties between boys of
his age and size. When his decision was given, it put an end
to the trouble.

In an interview with Dennis Hanks by Mr. Herndon, the
former said:

We learned by sight, scent and hearing. We heard all that was said,
and talked over and over the questions heard, and wore them slick and
greasy and threadbare. We went to hear political and other speeches, and
to such gatherings as you do now. We would hear all sides and opinions
and talk them over, discuss them, agreeing or disagreeing. Abe was a
cheerful boy. Sometimes he would get sad. but not very often. He was
always reading, scribbling, ciphering and writing poetry.

Miss Roby, who married Allen Gentry, the young man
with whom Lincoln made the celebrated flatboat trip down
the Mississippi river, said that she was at Gentry's Landing

70 Indiana Magazine of History

while this boat was being loaded preparatory to making the
southern journey. In speaking of Lincoln at this time she
said : "He was long, thin and gawky, his skin having the ap-
pearance of being dried up and shriveled." One evening as
they sat on the edge of the boat with their feet in the water,
Miss Roby called attention to the sunset; whereupon Lincoln
explained to her that the sun did not move in fact, but only
appeared to do so ; that it was the earth that went around the
sun. The young lady laughed at the absurdity of such no-
tions and thought him foolish, but later came to realize that
young Lincoln was not foolish, but knew much more than
anyone around there supposed.

It was this same young lady who related a circumstance
that took place in the schoolroom when all the scholars were
engaged on a Friday afternoon spelling match. This circum-
stance has been related by almost all of the earlier biographers
of Mr. Lincoln. The schoolmaster, Crawford, had "given out"
the word "defied," and the first one attempting it had said :
"d-e-f-y-e-d ;" the second "d-e-f-f-yed" and at length it came
Miss Roby's turn. Not being certain she chanced to look
across the room where Lincoln stood smiling. She notice
him slyly placing his finger to his eye, and taking the hint she
spelled the word correctly and went to the head of her class.
Young Lincoln was ever regarded as a good speller, and par-
ticularly so by the time he reached his seventeenth year. In
fact, he was easily the best speller in the neighborhood and
was commonly supposed to know quite as much as his teach-
ers, and more than some of them.

As late as the year 1880, in this section, if a young man
excelled in spelling so that he could "take the floor" at spelling
matches, and could "solve all the problems in the arithmetic,"
he was regarded as learned ; and no one questioned his ability
to teach school.

Lincoln especially liked argumentative bouts, and this
caused him to be much in the company of his elders. This
habit he later styled "practicing polemics." His ability to
argue, and his particular enjoyment of it, seems to have been
maintained during his occupancy of the White House. His
secretaries are on record as saying that he spent more time

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 71

and greater pains with the famous Vallandingham letter than
with any State paper.

As a youth he was quite inquisitive on almost any sub-
ject, and his habit was never to leave a subject, however
difficult, until he had mastered it. He was a good listener,
and appeared to know when to keep silent When in company
of his elders. After hearing fireside discussions, if certain
phases were not clear to him, he lay awake after retiring and
beginning at the first of the argument he carefully reviewed
it step by step until he had thoroughly satisfied his own mind
of the certainty of conclusions reached. He often walked to
and fro for considerable periods, repeating these arguments
to himself, and after mastering them once he never forgot
them. As he later put it, he "was not satisfied when on a
hunt for an idea until he could bound it north and south,
east and west." He was slow in reaching conclusions, but
when once he announced his decision in any given matter, he
could not be moved by the force of argument or any other
pressure brought to bear.

Many of his well-known stories, anecdotes and "yarns"
were of Indiana origin. He and Dennis Hanks usually spent
their evenings at the Gentryville store, and on rainy days
they might be found either at the store or at Baldwin's black-
smith shop. Baldwin was a great master at story telling, and
it was his "yarns" afterward related by Lincoln that caused
members of cabinets or Congress, and even representatives
of foreign countries, to smile or laugh uproariously.

It was his custom, after reading the Louisville Journal
at Jones' store to meditate upon what he had read, and then
while at work in the fields he would often review some of these
discussions for the benefit of his associates.

Lincoln has been accused of being lazy, and in support
of this assertion more or less evidence has been offered. Mr.
Romine, a near neighbor to the Lincolns and for whom
Abraham often labored, is quoted as saying that "Lincoln
was lazy." The writer did not know Mr. Romine, but Mrs.
Romine was yet living when the data composing these pages
were being obtained. In no single instance was this charge
of laziness made against Lincoln by any of his early friends.

72 Indiana Magazine of History

However, it is believed that some of them would have been
inclined to this belief had they been approached earlier in
life when it was the fashion to make the charge against any
who spent time poring over books. For any chance passerby
to see a youth lying beneath the shade of a tree, busily read-
ing, was prima facie evidence that he was lazy and usually
occasioned, as in Lincoln's case, some such remark as, "Old
Tom's Abe'd ruther fool his time away a readin' out of a book
than to work any day." Indeed, this disposition to criticise
those who engage in purely mental labors while others were
in the fields or shops is met with frequently even today.

Not long since in this very region, an artist spent some
days on an eminence sketching a landscape, and he was sub-
jected to severe criticism by the farm laborers, remarking
that "he is doubtless the son of a bloated aristocrat and was
not raised to work." Thus in Lincoln's time for one to have
a day off and elect to spend it in reading, was regarded as
indicating a lazy disposition. Had the day off been spent
along the river bank with hook and line, or in the woods with
the gun, it would have elicited no unfavorable comment. The
major portion of Lincoln's early friends came to realize this,
and where once might have been found carping criticism, at
the time the writer was gathering data he found commenda-
tion.

The fact that Lincoln frequented the Gentryville store or
blacksmith shop has been cited as evidence quite sufficient to
establish the charge that he was lazy. There is a rule in logic
that if too much is proven, then nothing is proved. Cer-
tainly, if the mere fact that Lincoln was often found at Gen-
tryville is deemed sufficient evidence to prove his indifference
to work, then substantially all of his neighbors were lazy,
since Gentryville was a Saturday town or rainy day town for
the surrounding neighborhood, just as many towns are today.
As congressmen and senators frequent the cloakroom, smok-
ing and indulging themselves in the pastime of story telling,
so in like manner Lincoln frequented the pioneer cloakroom —
Jones' store — thus gathering that fund of stories and anec-
dotes which he afterward related to his associates and White
House visitors. Lincoln's boyhood friends indicated that "he

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 73

was ever ready to turn his hand at anything, no matter much
what, and was always at work if there was any work to be
had."

Joseph Gentry, a brother of Allen, told of hearing Lin-
coln make his first public address, apart from such efforts as
the schoolhouse debates occasioned. The circumstances lead-
ing up to this were as follows :

Two neighbors each owned a flock of geese, and one
evening when one of these flocks returned and was being
housed for the night, it was ascertained that a certain grey
goose was missing. The owner, knowing that his flock occa-
sionally mingled with that of his neighbor, and very naturally
supposing that it had strayed off with these, he accordingly
went to the home of the owner of the other flock. On his
arrival there he explained his mission, and at once pointed to
a certain goose claiming it as his ; whereupon the neighbor
disputed the claim, and before long this occasioned a heated
argument which came little short of a personal encounter.
The two disputants made sundry threats on separating, each
saying in effect that the matter was not settled, and the
owner of the stray goose indicated that he would "bring the
matter before the squire." Accordingly, attorneys were con-
sulted and employed to prosecute and defend. The day was
set for the trial, the court room being the schoolhouse about
one mile east of the Lincoln cabin.

The difference between these two neighbors occasioning
the litigation very naturally produced intense interest
throughout the community, so much so in fact that when the
day fixed for the trial came, a great crowd assembled. How-
ever, not all of these came merely to gratify curiosity, for
both sides had subpoenaed a number of witnesses. Mr. Gen-
try stated that so far as to his having any personal interest
or motive in attending, it was due solely to a boyish curiosity
to witness these proceedings, and falling in with Lincoln,
who was at that time in his seventeenth year, they walked
together to the schoolhouse. Arriving early, they went well
forward and sat down on a backless puncheon seat. Erelong
the little house was crowded. The two litigants, together
with members of their families and friends, were seated on

74 Indiana Magazine of History

either side of the room. There was that characteristic still-
ness that foreboded a storm, and presently, without any
warning whatever, Lincoln arose, and advancing quickly for-
ward, faced the assembled crowd and began making an ad-
dress. Gentry maintained that Lincoln had not previously
indicated his purpose to him or to others of attempting such
a thing, and when he thus stood forth and began the speech
he (Gentry) was greatly surprised. It was, of course, not
possible for Gentry to give the exact language of Lincoln on
this occasion, but since the circumstances were indelibly fixed
in his memory he found no great difficulty in setting forth the
scene rather vividly, and it is believed that the following
version of it is substantially what occurred :

Friends and neighbors, what means this great gathering of old neigh-
bors? What is it that has called us together here? (up to this time the
speaker's face being as serious as Lincoln's face could be) and then amid
the painful silence his features changed, his eyebrows lifted, and irresisti-
ble humor beamed forth.) "What brings us together? Why — an — old —
gray — goose !" A great roar of laughter greeted this ludicrous drawl, but
not being interrupted in any way and doubtless encouraged to proceed
by the volley of laughter, he continued (serious again), this time stating
the case. "Mr. A., here (addressing him), has lost a goose and he asserts
that his neighbor, Mr. B., here (pointing) has it. Although Mr. B. dis-
claims having in his possession any goose not his own. not being able or
disposed to settle their difference between themselves, they have decided
to go to law, and that's why we are all here." (Comical again.) "Mr.
A. (addressing him), you say you have lost a gray goose, and that you
know that Mr. B., here has it, and rather than lose it you have resolved
to bring the matter to the court. Now you, Mr. A. (pointing and then
quickly turning his face and body half about) and you Mr. B., after you've
had your trial today, and no matter which way it goes, what have either
of you gained? W-E-L-Ij. Mr. A., if you win your case you'll get back your
old gray goose, and it-is-worth-say-about-two-bits ! (great laughter). And
you. Mr. B., if you win today, you'll get to keep your old gray goose that
you claim has always been yours, and it's worth say-about-two-bits
(laughter). Now you. Mr. A. (serious again), and you, Mr. B., if you
win today you'll get back your goose or keep your goose as the ease may
be, but (very earnestly) I tell both of you that whichever one may win,
he's going to lose! And lose what, you say? Well, you have both -been
neighbors, and you'll lose your friendship for one another for one thing;
and not only that, it won't stop there. For what means this array of
witnesses hei'e? (pointing). It means your wives and family and friends
will be at outs, and you've set up a commotion in the entire neighborhood,
and what about? (exceedingly comical). Oh, w-e-1-1, all-on-account-of-an-

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 75

old-gray-goose ! If I were in your place, men, I'd stop all this hair pulling
and wool gathering. I'd get together here and now and settle this thing,
make up and be friends.

The result was that just as the court and the two attor-
neys from the county seat town came through the little door-
way, Lincoln had the two litigants shaking hands and smiling.
Lincoln had thus laughed the matter out of court and won his
maiden case which may not inaptly or inappropriately be
called "The Gray Goose case."

Thoughtful consideration is invited by way of compari-
son of this circumstance with Lincoln's Cincinnati speech
where he presumes to address his "friends across the river,"
as well as his famous Cooper Institute address, and above all
his first inaugural where he stands as the nation's peace-
maker, saying: "You of the North and you of the South, you
can not fight always, and after you have fought with much
loss on both sides with no gain * * * can aliens make
treaties easier than friends can make laws?"

The method and manner, certainly the peculiar plat-
form mannerisms, the skilful bringing together of humor and
the setting forth of the serious side, were pre-eminently char-
acteristic of young Lincoln so that when he sprang into the
arena of debate later, he came fully armed to meet the "Little
Giant" Douglass, if not with a shepherd's crook and sling,
with weapons more formidable — the speech and faith of the
plain people, appealing as he did "to the considerate judgment
of mankind and invoking the gracious favor of Almighty
God" in defense of a holy cause that had been repeatedly de-
fied.

The unrivaled genius of Lincoln whose consummate art
in statement enabled him to become such a wizard with the
pen, and which flowered out on the prairies of Illinois, was
budding forth in the morning of his life in the wilderness of
Indiana, becoming, as he did in after years, "the greatest
leader of all, he had the humblest origin and scantiest scholar-
ship, yet he surpassed all orators in eloquence, all diplomats
in wisdom, all statesmen in foresight and the most ambitious
in fame."

(To be Continued)

Reviews and Notes

Chronicles of the Cape Fear River, 1660-1916. By James
Sprunt. Second Edition, Raleigh, 1916; pp. xii, 732.

It will no doubt be a surprise to many readers to find a
volume of this size filled with the history of this small district ;
it is hardly more than a large community. The district is quite
as fortunate in having Mr. Sprunt as one of its citizens as in
having two and one half centuries of interesting history. As
early as 1663 commissioners sent from the Barbadoes exam-
ined the North Carolina coast with a view to settlement. Al-
most a century previous, 1585, the old English sea dog, Sir
Richard Greenville, had coasted along the sandy shores of
Cape Fear. In 1660, or thereabouts, adventurers from Massa-
chusetts established a trading post on the Cape Fear river.
The first permanent settlers arrived May 24, 1664. The colony
was thus over a century old when the Revolution broke out;
two centuries old in time of the Civil war. Some four hundred
men went from here in 1740 to fight the Spaniards on the
Spanish Main. During this period the Cape Fear river bank
was dotted with fine old plantations. On the headwaters of
the river were Sotch refugees from the Jacobite rebellion in
Scotland, from Glencoe and Culloden. The story of Flora
McDonald is both interesting and pathetic, to the thousands of
Scotch descendants in the Northwest. The material develop-
ment of the country from 1790 to 1860 — canals, railroads,
steamboats — the growth of institutional life, form a signifi-
cant story and in this volume it is mingled with enough rem-
iniscent incidents, such as a visit to Wilmington in 1852 by
Joseph Jefferson, to make the whole interesting. By far the
greatest interest, historically, attaches to the chapter dealing
with the Civil war. The Cape Fear coast, guarded by Fort
Fisher, was the most difficult section on the whole Confederate
seaboard to close against blockade runners. Fort Fisher was
the last gateway of the Confederacy to the outside world.
More than one hundred of these blockade runners are named

Bailey: Diary of the Mexican War 147

distance. Part of Third Regiment of Tennessee on board.

July 3. Monday. Calm all day. "Rockall" a few miles
ahead.

July 4. Saw two steam ships on their way to Vera Cruz.

July 5. Calm at 9 o'clock was taken in tow by Star and
the Rockall also; had a hard rain had to be towed again.
Anchored at the Balize bar.5

July 5. Thursday. Passed the bar early and Fort Jack-
son at 3 o'clock.

July 7. Run down below Algiers and anchored out near
the middle of the river the Rockall just ahead of us.

July 8. Saturday at 10 o'clock all five companys em-
barked on Steam boat Pike N 8 [Number 8] for Madison,
Ind. run to New Orleans there stopped until 6 in evening.

July 17. Today we arrived at Madison at 3 o'clock P. M.
passed through the Canal at Louisville Ky. this morning at
daylight all soldiers took boarding mostly amongst the Citizens
as the boarding houses were full with the Fourth Regiment
Indiana Volunteers who were waiting to be discharged.

July 27. Today at 3 o'clock p. m. Company C. was mus-
tered out the service of the U. S. A.

Thomas Bailey.

B Mouth of Mississippi river.

Lincoln in Indiana

(Concluded)

#

By J. Edward Murr
LINCOLN'S AMBITION TO BECOME A RIVER PILOT

I know there is a God and that he hates injustice and slavery. I see
the storm coming, and I know that His hand is in it. If He has a place
and work for me — and I think He has — I believe I am ready.

It was Goldwin Smith who said : "The Mississippi river
was once a mental horizon and afterward a boundary line."
During Lincoln's youth this river had become the highway for
the western pioneer, and what was true of the Father of
Waters was true of the Ohio river.

Lincoln came in touch with the outside world on this
great highway. Travel by boats, slow as it was, served as
quite the best means of making long journeys. Occasionally
a passing steamer landed at Anderson creek, and since Troy
was regarded as a place of some importance most of the river
crafts made port there. Hence young Lincoln, while acting
as ferryman during his seventeenth year, was privileged to
see somewhat of life from without. Notable men occasion-
ally passed, and he may have even met with some of them.

A short distance above Troy, General LaFayette, while
making his tour of the Western States by way of the Ohio
river, spent a night in a stone house on the river bank after
his disabled steamer sank. Perhaps Lincoln did not see the
"Friend of Washington," but his passing and the circum-
stance of his spending the night ashore not far from where
Lincoln lived, furnished a theme for the pioneers for a con-
siderable time thereafter.

It was while acting as ferryman at Anderson creek that
Lincoln made his first dollar. This circumstance, which he
related in later life to members of his cabinet and Secretary
Seward in particular, was as follows:

Mutt: Lincoln in Indiana 149

I was standing at the steamboat landing contemplating my new boat,
and wondering bow I migbt improve it, wben a steamer approached com-
ing down the river. At the same time two passengers came to the river
bank and wished to be taken ont to the packet with their luggage. They
looked among the boats, singled out mine, and asked me to scull them to
the boat. Sometime prior to this I had constructed a small boat in which
I planned to carry some produce South which had been gathered chiefly
by my own exertions. We were poor, and in them days people down South
who did not own slaves were reckoned as scrubs. When I was requested
to scull these men out to the steamer, I gladly did so, and after seeing
them and their trunks on board, and the steamer making ready to pass on,
I called out to the men : "You have forgotten to pay me." They at once
each threw a half dollar in the bottom of the boat in which I was standing.
You gentlemen may think it was a very small matter, and in the light
of things now transpiring it was, but I assure you it was one of the most
important incidents in my life. I could scarcely believe my eyes. It was
difficult for me to realize that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar in less
than a clay. The world seemed wider and fairer before me. I was a
more hopeful and confident being from that time.

Young1 Lincoln being ambitious and desirous of better-
ing his condition very naturally looked to the river for em-
ployment. Possessing some skill with carpenter's tools he
had at this time constructed a boat that he deemed seaworthy
enough to make the journey referred to in his conversation
with Secretary Seward.

It has been asserted by some of his biographers that this
journey was not made, and one writer ventures to suggest
that since the Lincolns had nothing in the way of produce
justifying such a trip, it was therefore merely a journey of
the imagination. Such a position taken is a needless effort
to establish the well-known poverty of the Lincolns, but since
no such journey was undertaken by any at that time without
presuming upon neighborly assistance, which proved in sub-
stantially every case to be a mutual accommodation, the pro-
posed trip down the Ohio and Mississippi by young Lincoln
might have been fully justified, since it is now known that
he had on his own account a crop of tobacco. The plans for
the trip, as indicated in the conversation with Seward, were
so changed as to cause him to leave his own boat behind and
take passage upon the flatboat of Mr. Ray.

Having made this and the later trip with young Gentry

150 Indiana Magazine of History

down the great river, he seems to have been disposed "to fol-
low the Ohio," and a little later went to his old friend and
patron "Uncle Wood," in whom he reposed great confidence,
requesting that this gentleman aid him by way of a recom-
mendation to secure a position on some steamer plying up and
down this river. Mr. Wood, realizing that Lincoln was not
of age, hesitated to advise the youth to leave his father, and
refused to give the assistance deemed by Lincoln essential to
secure a position. It was quite the rule in that day for a boy
to remain with his parents until reaching his majority. How-
ever, Lincoln was very insistent, and in the course of his argu-
ment remarked that "it was his best chance," and "a chance is
all I want." After some persuasion on the part of Wood, he
yielded and remained with his father until well into his twen-
ty-second year.

Since the river traffic along the Ohio and Mississippi at
that time, and for a considerable period thereafter, was great,
had young Lincoln succeeded in prevailing upon his old friend
Wood to aid him in securing a position as pilot we might
have lost our great war President, but would have perhaps
gained another Mark Twain. In any case, had he been so
fortunate as to find some "Boswell," his fame as a humorist
would have been secure.

That young Lincoln seems to have become resigned to
his lot is evidenced by Mr. Wood in stating that soon after
this interview relative to his becoming a river pilot he saw
Lincoln whip-sawing lumber, and on asking him what he in-
tended doing with this, Wood was told that the elder Lincoln
was "planning to erect a new house in the spring." The let-
ters of John Hanks concerning the Illinois location and the
glowing accounts of Dennis Hanks on his return from that
region occasioned the abandonment of the plan to erect the
new home, and the lumber was disposed of to Josiah Crawford
who used the major portion of it in the construction of an
additional room to his house.

It was soon after young Lincoln returned to the farm
from Anderson Creek ferry that he formed the habit of at-
tending the various courts, but it was while acting as ferry-
man that he attended court for the first time. His presence

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 151

there was not prompted by mere curiosity or due to any am-
bition that he possessed to take up the law as a profession, but
he appeared as a prisoner at the bar, the first and only time
in his life; although, had there been debtors' prisons during
a certain period of his lifetime, he might have suffered im-
prisonment in consequence of the overwhelming obligations
that he assumed and which he failed to meet until many years
after they were incurred.

The circumstance of his becoming a prisoner and his ap-
pearance in the court were as follows :

While acting as ferryman at Anderson creek on the Indiana
side of the Ohio river, John and Benjamin Dill, two farmers
residing on the Kentucky side of the river just opposite the
town of Troy, had become licensed ferrymen. Occasionally
when busily engaged in agricultural pursuits, they neglected
the ferry to the extent that their ferry bell would sound
again and again without their hearing it; or, what was more
probable, on hearing it failed to respond to its call. On such
occasions when the bell rang repeatedly, young Lincoln would
push out from the Indiana side and ferry the anxious traveler
across the river, and of course received the usual fee for such
services.

Whether Lincoln's ear was thought to be too attentive to
the ferry bell on the Kentucky side of the river, or whether
the Dill brothers wished to make him an example to any and
all who were disposed to take liberties with their legal rights,
we do not know, but in any case they decided to entrap Lin-
coln and visit him with suitable punishment. Accordingly they
requested a neighbor to sound the ferry bell, and when they
did not respond as was frequently the case, Lincoln quickly
oared across the river. Running his boat up to an opening
in the dense willows on the river bank where the supposed
anxious passenger stood in apparent readiness to step in, Lin-
coln was surprised to find himself seized by both the supposed
passenger and the Dill brothers who had up to his appearance
been hiding in the willows. They at once announced their
intention of giving their prisoner a "ducking." The youthful
ferryman not appearing to understand their motives became
very angery, and the presumption is that he manifested this

152 Indiana Magazine of History

in no uncertain manner. It never appeared clear whether the
original purpose of the Dill brothers was carried out or seri-
ously attempted after the preliminary skirmish with "Long
Abe," but it is quite true that they at length proposed to "take
him before the squire" where punishment could be meted out
in a legal manner. Lincoln, by this time understanding his
supposed offense, accompanied his captors to the local justice,
one Samuel Pate, who resided one mile distant down the river.
On their arrival at the farm home of Pate finding that gentle-
man out on the farm at work, one of their party was dis-
patched to inform his honor that more weighty matters needed
his attention, while the others stood guard over the prisoner.

More or less regularity appears to have been observed
in the hearing accorded the youthful offender. At first it is
said he was greatly disturbed on hearing the statements of
the two Dills and about the decoy, more especially so when it
appeared from some of their assertions that a jail sentence
awaited him, but when the 'Squire proposed to him to offer
his version of the affair and make any statement that he
cared to, Lincoln gladly availed himself of the opportunity.
In doing so he freely and frankly confessed that on numerous
occasions he had ferried passengers across the river from
the Kentucky side when the travelers failed to secure a re-
sponse to the repeated ringing of the bell, but he disclaimed
any knowledge of the fact that in so doing he had violated
any law, distinctly stating that he did not know he was thus
encroaching upon the rights of the Dill brothers; that if he
had known it was wrong, he would not have been guilty in any
single instance. He further alleged that not only was he free
from intentional wrong, but in reality he supposed he was
conferring a great favor upon the owners of the ferry who,
he supposed, were at such times away from home or were
otherwise engaged, as well as accommodating anxious trav-
elers.

Without throwing himself upon the mercy of the court
or pleading for leniency, he nevertheless did so all the more
effectively by impressing, as he did, both his accusers and
the 'squire with his sincerity, truthfulness and honesty, re-
asserting his ignorance of the law and promising that in the

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 153

future he would not be found trespassing upon their rights.
The appeal was effective, and the court, after listening to this
recital of facts, dismissed him with some suitable words of
advice. Thus, like Caesar in chains, he had talked himself
free.

The 'squire became greatly interested in Lincoln, and
finding him a great talker and inquisitive concerning court
procedure especially, urged the young man to prolong his stay,
which he did. On taking his leave the 'squire pressed upon
him an invitation to attend a sitting of his court which Lin-
coln accepted, and not only did he attend this particular sit-
ting, but became a regular attendant so long as he remained
ferryman at Anderson creek.

'Squire Pate did not live to witness Lincoln's rise to fame,
but many of his family did. The house is still standing in
which this trial was held, and the only remaining son of Pate
pointed out the room in which this memorable sitting of his
father's court was held. The circumstance was known to a
number of the old citizens of the neighborhood, and a full
account of this incident appeared in a local newspaper in
Lincoln's old home county — the Perry County Tribune.

Young Lincoln was in the habit of attending the ses-
sions of the circuit court as well as trials before the local jus-
tice of the peace. That he possessed an ambition at this early
period to become a lawyer is certainly true.

His friend, David Turnham, was elected constable of the
township, and had in consequence gotten possession of a copy
of the Revised Statutes of Indiana. Lincoln being especially
anxious to read this volume and Turnham being loath to have
it leave the house, Lincoln spent hours at Turnham's home de-
vouring this book.

The volume contained a copy of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence as well as the National and State Constitutions.
These Lincoln studied, committing to memory the Declara-
tion of Independence and large portions of the National Con-
stitution, and for the first time in his life met with legal enact-
ments touching upon slavery.

Aside from the flatboat trips down the Ohio and Missis-
sippi rivers, young Lincoln saw comparatively little of the

154 Indiana Magazine of History

world without. As has been indicated, he frequented the sit-
tings of the circuit courts at Boonville, in Warrick county, as
well as at Rockport, the county seat of Spencer county, and
was often at Troy. In addition to his visits to these compara-
tively small places, he had an occasion to go at least once a
year, after approaching manhood, to Princeton, in Gibson
county, there being a carding machine located at that place
which converted the fleece into rolls ready for the spinning
wheel. Hand carding being quite tedious and slow, young
Lincoln was sent with the wool to this machine. The journey
was a rather long one for that time, and occupied some three
days. These little excursions, together with the usual trips
to Gordon's or Hoffman's Mills, relieved the monotony and
routine of life, and it is said that these trips were gladly wel-
comed by the future President.

The mills for grinding corn in the early days were crude
affairs. The "horse-mill" was the first one introduced, small
mills propelled by horses hitched to a "sweep." Later, and
during the Indiana residence of the Lincolns, Hoffman's water
mill was erected on Anderson creek. The horse mill at Gor-
don's was the scene of that incident that Mr. Lincoln was ac-
customed to revert to again and again, professing to think that
it was one of the principal incidents of his life. The circum-
stance was as follows :

Lincoln and young David Turnham had gone to mill, but
securing a late start and having to "take their turn," it was
quite late in the afternoon when young Lincoln hitched his
father's old flea-bitten gray mare to the sweep, and perching
himself upon the accustomed seat began to urge the old mare
to a lively pace. He was "clucking" and belaboring the horse
with a switch and in the midst of his urgings he started to
say: "Get up here, you old hussy," when the old gray resisted
the continued drubbing and lifting her hind feet kicked him
full in the face. Before the sentence was finished the young
man was knocked off the sweep and lay unconscious. Young
Turnham ran for help, and soon Abraham's father came with
a wagon, placed the unconscious youth in it, and took him
home. He lay in a stupor during the greater portion of the
night but toward morning showed signs of returning con-

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 155

sciousness. Erelong he roused up and opening his eyes ex-
claimed:— "you old hussy," thus completing the exclamation
attempted the evening before.

Mr. Herndon, the law partner of Lincoln, said that Lin-
coln often called attention to this experience of his youth and
entered into discussions with him as to the mystery connected
with the utterance of these particular words on regaining con-
sciousness.

Occasionally young Lincoln was privileged to get a breath
of the great world from without by meeting with some chance
passerby or "mover" to other regions in the then far West.
On one occasion a wagon of one of these emigrants broke down
near the Lincoln cabin and while the damaged vehicle was
undergoing repairs the wife and daughter on invitation spent
the time in the Lincoln cabin. What was especially interesting
to the youth was that they had a book of stories which the lady
read to him. After their journey had been resumed, Lincoln,
who like the great apostle to the Gentiles turned everything to
his advantage, proceeded to write a story of the whole affair ;
but giving free play to his imagination and fancy he drew the
account out at some length, describing in detail his mounting
a horse and overtaking the emigrant wagon, and proposing an
elopement with the young lady whose father interposed objec-
tions to their marriage. Lincoln purposed enlarging upon this
story and submitting it for publication, but thought differently
concerning it later, and thus the story, which was doubtless
crude and altogether unworthy of a place in literature, was
lost save that we have preserved the one item of value which
was that he was always "scribbling and writing."

It is rather remarkable that Lincoln did not appoint any
of his old associates to any Federal position, since there were
at least some three or four of them quite capable. On the
score of boyhood friendship it would appear that he would
under ordinary circumstances have remembered them, especi-
ally when good and efficient service would have been rendered
by some of them in certain departments. So far as can be
ascertained no applications ever reached him for patronage
from any of his old friends, although, as has been heretofore
detailed, some two or three journeyed to Washington for that

156 Indiana Magazine of Histoid

purpose, but were anticipated and forestalled in such a man-
ner as to prevent any formal request being- made. This charac-
teristic seems to have been peculiar to Lincoln, for even in the
appointment of his friend, Judge David Davis, unusual pressure
was made with some suggestion of reluctance even then. The de-
partments were not filled with his old associates, and political
loyalty was not especially rewarded by him. This practice
was quite the reverse of that of President Grant.

William Ferrier, well known by the writer, was a boy-
hood associate of General Grant. He often related the follow-
ing circumstance which was characteristic of General Grant,
although in some respects an exceptional incident ; and since it
serves as a contrast to the practice of Lincoln it is here given.

Ferrier was the founder and long the publisher of the
Clark County Record, an Indiana newspaper in its day wield-
ing considerable power and influence. Ferrier and Grant
were boys together and were great friends. At the time of
Grant's appointment to West Point, young Ferrier was ap-
pointed to Annapolis, but was prevented from entering the
Navy by reason of physical disability, and another was se-
lected in his stead who later became a Rear Admiral. Ferrier
drifted West and early became an editor. Like Grant, he was
a Democrat, but at the outbreak of the Rebellion he boldly
changed his political affiliation and became an ardent sup-
porter of Lincoln. Later when General Grant became Presi-
dent, his old friend decided to go to Washington and call upon
him in the White House. On entering the waiting room he
found a large number of persons, and supposing that it would
be some time before he could be admitted he seated himself,
and while indulging in this reflection he was surprised greatly
on hearing his name called. On regaining his composure
somewhat he approached the private office of his boyhood
friend with conflicting emotions, very naturally judging that
his name must have been recognized as that of an old acquaint-
ance and thus given precedence ; at the same time wondering
whether he was justified in accepting such courtesy when so
many were in waiting, perhaps on urgent business. On enter-
ing the room of the President he was greeted by General Grant
with the salutation : "How are you, William ?" The two old

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 157

friends renewed their former acquaintance by reference to
numerous incidents transpiring in their youth. Grant partic-
ularly mentioned the old swimming hole and the time when
their clothing was stolen, while Ferrier reminded Grant of his
driving a particularly fine span of horses down main street in
Georgetown and cracking his black-snake whip. In recalling
this incident Ferrier suggested :

Mr. President, although we have been separated all these years, I
have watched your career with considerable interest and pride. I have
been your supporter, both during the War and in the political campaign,
but I give it as my judgment that as great as have been the honors that
have been showered upon you, you have never had an occasion to be quite
as proud of them as you were that morning in Georgetown when you drove
those horses.

Grant laughed heartily and readily acknowledged that
"this was probably true." After a few moments in conversa-
tion Ferrier arose preparatory to taking his leave, whereupon
the President motioned him to be seated, and then unexpect-
edly asked him if there was not some position at his disposal
in the government which Ferrier would like to have. Ferrier,
whose purpose in making the call was far removed from this,
replied :

No, sir, Mr. President, I have no ambition at all to serve the govern-
ment in any appointive or elective office whatever. I am an editor and
enjoy my work, and do not desire to leave it.

To which the President replied :

Very well, William, then I'll see to it that you are furnished certain
copies of government notices which are at my disposal, and tbese can be
printed by you ; they will mean something to you, I hope.

No opposition was of course made to this, but on the con-
trary the unexpected offer was received with hearty thanks.
On Ferrier's again suggesting that he was unduly taking up
the President's time, Grant motioned him to his chair and
asked: "Where is your brother Jim?" Ferrier replied that
his brother was a resident of Jeffersonville, Indiana. "Then,
William," announced the President, "I shall appoint Jim as
postmaster of Jeffersonville." "But, Mr. President, my broth-
er is not now, nor has he been an applicant for this position,

158 Indiana Magazine of History

whereas others have, and my understanding is that Senator
has this matter at his disposal." "William, I must re-
member my old boyhood friends. Jim will be appointed post-
master at Jeffersonville." "Yes, but Mr. President, while I
assure you I appreciate your generosity and friendship, and
I feel quite sure that while my brother is not an applicant for
the place, he would be more than pleased to receive the ap-
pointment. But my understanding is that Senator has

already made choice of a gentleman for this place." "William,
I am President and Jim will be postmaster."

The sequel is a matter of history and furnishes very in-
teresting reading in the light of present-day procedure.
James Ferrier was appointed postmaster for Jeffersonville,

and Senator interposed objections, the Senate refusing to

confirm the appointment. On the adjournment of Congress
Ferrier was appointed by Grant, and when Congress reassem-
bled the matter came up and his confirmation again failed.
On the adjournment of Congress once more the President
appointed Ferrier, and this time the Senate confirmed his
appointment. William Ferrier, the editor, enjoyed the gov-
ernment patronage in the matter of public printing as long as
this was at the disposal of General Grant.

Lincoln never forgot a kindness, as evidenced in his
steadfast refusal to attack John Calhoun during the great
debate with Douglas, since Calhoun had early befriended him.

Lincoln was enabled to appear before the people as a suc-
cessful candidate on numerous occasions, and took particular
pride in calling attention to the fact that he had never been
defeated but once when the people themselves were appealed to,
although his methods in some respects were anything but
those of a politician.

He did not concern himself in local elections when he was
not a candidate. Being so often before the people for pilitical
preferment, there were times when others equally ambitious to
serve their party either became Lincoln's opponent or threat-
ened to be. At such times he would seek an interview with
them, and with an unconscious arrogancy and priority of
claim he would say:

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 159

I would rather than not that you step aside in this race and let me
have a free field so that I may show them what I can do.

He was only delivered from egotism by the recognized
superiority of his powers, and would have been justly charged
with monumental selfishness but for the steadfast adherence
to the great basic principles of truth and justice. Meeting
often with trickery and double-dealing in politics among those
high in the councils of the party, he never lost faith in the
plain people. Since he himself never wavered in the perform-
ance of his public duties, but administered public affairs as
conscientiously as he pulled corn blades for the Crawford
damaged book, he thus more nearly than any other before or
since represented the people. It is believed that he is
more highly regarded and sincerely appreciated by the people
of the South today than is Jefferson Davis, and this, together
with the fact that he preserved the unity and continuity of our
nation, is the greatest and most enduring monument to his
memory. Of all the men aspiring to the Presidency during the
campaign of 1860, Lincoln alone could have preserved the
unity and continuity of our nation.

"NOW HE BELONGS TO THE AGES"

Broken by. it I too may be; bow to it I never will. The probability
that we may fail in the struggle ought not deter us from the support of a
cause we believe to be just.

An attorney by the name of Breckenridge resided on a
farm not far from Boonville, the county seat of Warrick
county. This town was about twenty miles from the Lincoln
cabin, but the ambitious youth frequently made pilgrimages
to this gentleman's home to borrow his law books, sometimes
remaining throughout the day and night reveling in the mys-
teries of the law.

Wesley Hall maintained that young Lincoln also obtained
his first opportunity of reading Shakespeare on these visits,
and alleged that he had heard Lincoln recite portions of some
of the great dramatist's writings.

Members of the Breckenridge family long pointed out a

160 Indiana Magazine of History

certain stump in the yard of the home which they had pleased
to call "Lincoln's Stump" by reason of the fact that at certain
times he was in the habit of perching himself upon this while
reading.

Lincoln visited the circuit court sessions both at Rockport
and Boonville, and it was at this latter place that he heard
John Breckenridge, a member of the famous family by that
name in Kentucky.

A murder had been committed, and the defendant had em-
ployed the brilliant criminal lawyer. The knowledge that "a
big lawyer" from an adjoining state was to be connected with
the case reached Gentry ville, and a number of men journeyed
to Boonville to witness this trial and particularly to hear
Breckenridge. Lincoln was, of course, one of this group.

Breckenridge had been greatly favored by nature, and
possessing an enviable reputation as a great lawyer he had
become more or less vain. Quite in keeping with the custom
of the times among certain classes his dress was particularly
fastidious, and his raven black hair was made yet more glossy
by a copious use of "bear's ile."

The court room was crowded, and Lincoln stood well to
the rear throughout the whole of Breckenridge's argument.
At the close of this address a short recess was taken, and dur-
ing this intermission a number of the members of the bar
offered congratulations on the masterly effort of the great ad-
vocate. Young Lincoln, witnessing these expressions of appre-
ciation and being profoundly moved by the address himself,
straightway resolved to offer his congratulations also. Un-
mindful of the fact that he was not a member of the bar, that
he was dressed in his accustomed blouse, and buckskin
breeches, with his coarse black hair disheveled and in wild con-
fusion, he pressed forward, offered his hand to the great man
and was on the point of expressing his pleasure at hearing the
argument, when Breckenridge deliberately turned his back
upon the youth, not deigning to notice him.

Years went by, and when Lincoln was in the White House
this gentleman, then a resident of the State of Texas, was pre-
sented to the President, who readily recalled both the man and
the circumstance at Boonville. Lincoln exclaimed as he

Mutt: Lincoln in Indiana 161

grasped the proffered hand : "Oh, yes I know Mr. Brecken-
ridge. I heard you address a jury in a murder trial at Boon-
ville, Indiana, when I was a boy. I remember that I thought
at the time it was a great speech, and that if I could make a
speech like that I would be very happy."

It will be observed throughout that Lincoln's ambition "to
rise in the world" was overmastering. It was said of a great
German that he was the "God-intoxicated man." So it might
well have been said of young Lincoln that he was intoxicated
with a consuming desire to acquire knowledge.

Very naturally one would be led to believe that had such
a hungry mind been supplied with books in abundance his ad-
vancement would have been rapid. But there is even in this
wasted pity and sympathy, judging by some certain things
transpiring a little later.

When Lincoln entered upon the practice of his chosen
profession — the law — and had more or less leisure for study,
he read but few books. Associated as he was with Stuart,
Logan and Herndon, and the latter possessing a rather pre-
tentious library, yet Lincoln rarely read these books. It was
his custom while out on the circuit to take on these six weeks'
journeys school texts, and a great deal of his time was taken
up with literature of a lighter character than one would have
supposed true in his case. A great deal of his reading was
desultory, and he appeared to revel in those publications of a
humorous or witty character. Judging by his tastes in this
regard, had he been privileged to have access to such publica-
tions as Judge or Puck, he would have been greatly delighted.

It may well be doubted therefore whether any other
course than that which he did pursue would have proven any
better than the self denial which was imposed upon him, and
compelled his complete mastery of the few classics that fell
into his possession.

Contrary to the statement of Colonel Lamon and others
who alleged that Lincoln did not read the Bible during his
youth, it is indisputably true that he read it again and again.
Indeed, if there were no other evidence than his public ad-
dresses and State papers to verify this, that would be quite

162 Indiana Magazine of History

sufficient for the very spirit and sentiment of many of them
are traceable to the King James version of the Bible.

But we do not need to rely upon this source altogether for
information in the matter, since his associates assert that he
was accustomed to read the Bible very much, and such a prac-
tice in a youth, which was not at all common then and for that
matter is not so today, would well be calculated to occasion
comment.

The London Times, in speaking of Mr. Lincoln's second
Inaugural Address, likened it to the productions of one of the
ancient prophets, and spoke of its author as possessing such
keen prophetic insight and power as to justify the appellation
of a seer.

Lincoln read Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress again and
again, and so familiar did he become with it that he could
repeat many pages from memory. He particularly admired
Aesop's Fables, and so often did he read them that he could
have said, as did Lord Macaulay of Milton's Paradise Lost,
that if every copy had been destroyed, he could have repro-
duced it from memory. Dennis Hanks said that "young
Lincoln would lie down on his face in front of the fire, with
Aesop's Fables before him," and read to his stepmother and
the "illiterate Denny," as Abraham called him. When some
point in the story appealed to him as being funny or humor-
ous, he would laugh and continue laughing so heartily that
both Mrs. Lincoln and Dennis would be compelled to join him,
although Hanks asserted that "most of the time he did not
know what he was laughing about, although Abe said he did."

The family Bible, Pilgrim's Progress and Aesop's Fables
were the only books in the possession of the family on their
arrival in Indiana. The mother of Lincoln was accustomed
to read these books to both her daughter Sarah and little
Abraham, and it is said that Aesop's Fables possessed a pecul-
iar fascination and charm for him while yet a mere lad at his
mother's knee.

The Life of Washington, which Lincoln obtained from
Josiah Crawford in the manner heretofore detailed, was read
many times, and if it may be charged that this volume took

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 163

occasion to deify Washington and failed to meet with accep-
tance at a later period, it was perhaps the very best sort of
publication for Lincoln and certainly better suited to him
at that time than such a biography as that by Washington Irv-
ing. The History of the United States, as has been stated, was
obtained from Jones, the storekeeper, but Robi?ison Crusoe,
and The Life of Benjamin Franklin we do not know how or
when they were obtained, but probably from the library of
Crawford.

What marvelous transformation was thus wrought in the
life of a single youth, and what potential possibilities are
wrapped up in a single soul ! Left, as Lincoln was, a mother-
less lad at the tender age of ten, living for one winter in a
half -faced camp with no teachers and no schools worthy of the
name, yet strange to say mastering some of the world's best
classics, which fate, or chance (that Victor Hugo says is only
another name for Providence) had thrown in his way, and
with the Indiana wilderness as his Alma Mater he matricu-
lated at an early age. His curriculum was history, theology,
mathematics, literature and woodcraft. His major was his-
tory ; his f rat house, a half -faced camp, and his college campus,
a clearing that he had made with his own hands. He left
brush college during his freshman year to devote himself ex-
clusively to athletics, in which he particularly excelled, espe-
cially with the ax and maul. After a time he took up the study
of law, having found a copy of Blackstone's Commentaries in a
barrel of plunder which, strange to say, he had purchased
from one poorer than himself. He later entered upon the
practice of his chosen profession which he followed until he
was called to be the chief executive of the nation.

Lincoln's life story surpasses anything in the pages of
romance or fiction ever conceived or invented by literary gen-
ius ! It is passing therefore strange that the boy Lincoln has
for the most part been refused those things that in later years
were so marked in his character and which were beyond ques-
tion sufficiently prominent in his youth as to cause his early
associates to remember him by them.

An effort has been made in the performance of this self-
imposed task to show that substantially every characteristic

164 Indiana Magazine of History

trait so universally allowed in Mr. Lincoln as a man was also
noted in him as a boy and youth.

It is believed that sufficient data has been offered to sub-
stantiate the claim made that before Mr. Lincoln reached the
State of Illinois, and therefore while yet a resident of Indiana,
he possessed that inimitable style in public address, his well-
known sense of fairness, his strange and weird melancholy, his
quaint humor and rare wit, his consuming1 ambition, certain
weaknesses, his abiding faith in Providence, his superstitious
beliefs, his Calvinistic fatalism which he usually hitched on to
a sort of Arminian faith, his freedom from bad habits, his
methods in original investigation, his peculiar style in con-
troverted questions, his power with the pen, his honesty and
truthfulness, and in fact every characteristic that has been
noted in him again and again as a man.

It is also believed that there is sufficient data submitted
to justify the claim that not only was the foundation of Mr.
Lincoln's character laid in the Indiana wilderness, but the
beginning of all that afterwards made him great asserted
itself during these early years.

It is of course not asserted that Mr. Lincoln's style, both
in public address and in composition, was at all perfected
while a mere youth, for he seems to have made steady pro-
gress in this to the very last. But it is claimed that there is
sufficient evidence to warrant the belief that his peculiar style
in debate, his platform mannerisms, his cool, calculating logic
and irresistible wit and humor were quite as characteristic
of his boyhood efforts as they were later noted and so generally
commented upon.

It is recalled that he could set an entire neighborhood
laughing and talking about his productions. He impressed
himself upon Judge Pitcher and the Baptist minister so as to
cause each of them to express keen appreciation of his ability
with the pen when his manuscripts on National Politics and
Temperance were submitted to them. It would seem to be
only a reasonable supposition and not mere conjecture that the
man who wrote the second Inaugural Address, the Cooper In-
stitute speech, and the Gettysburg oration in the day of his
power and maturity would have manifested some intimation

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 165

of this great ability and latent power earlier in life a thing
which he seems to have done quite often, but more particularly
in the compositions above referred to.

LEAVING THE INDIANA WILDERNESS

The Almighty has his own purposes ; * * * Fondly do we hope,
fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass
away.

The Lincolns and Hankses left Indiana in the month of
March, 1830. John Hanks, after spending four years in the
Indiana home of the Lincolns, returned to Kentucky, and then
moved to Illinois in the year 1828. He wrote such glowing
accounts of the new country that it caused Dennis Hanks to
make a journey to this region with a view of removing there.

The terrible blight of milk-sick which began its ravages
in Gentryville in the year 1818 continued for the next ten
years. Dennis Hanks lost all of his cattle in consequence of
its ravages, and had been seized with the disease himself, but
recovered. When Dennis Hanks decided to leave Indiana for
Illinois, he influenced his mother-in-law, Mrs. Lincoln, who did
not wish to be separated from her daughter. She seems to
have been largely responsible for the removal of the Lincolns
also, and accordingly both families and that of Levi Hall,
another son-in-law of Mrs. Lincoln, began to make prepara-
tion for this change during the winter of 1830.

The farm of Thomas Lincoln was disposed of to the elder
Gentry, if indeed it was not already his by reason of having
loaned the money for its purchase originally. At least, a
quantity of corn and a drove of hogs were disposed of to Mr.
Gentry, and such other changes were wrought as proved neces-
sary to make this journey to begin life anew. Thomas Lincoln
had a "chuck wagon," the woodwork being his own construc-
tion, but since it was "ironed off," it was a subject of consid-
erable comment, for such vehicles were exceedingly rare. It
was necessary to have suitable teams of oxen, and accordingly
there began more or less "swapping and dickering". In the
main this was done by Dennis Hanks, John Johnson and Abra-
ham Lincoln. Allen Brooner stated that two of these oxen

166 Indiana Magazine of History

were obtained from him, Abraham Lincoln and John Johnson
making this trade. There was considerable "haggling" over
the trade on the part of Johnson, Lincoln not entering into
the matter save in an incidental way. Brooner long after-
ward, in speaking of this circumstance, said: "If anybody
had asked me that day to pick out a President, I'd a quickly
made choice of Johnson."

The elder Hall sold the other yoke of cattle to Thomas
Lincoln, but these were purchased by proxy, he having sent his
son Abraham and Dennis Hanks to do the trading. Wesley
Hall delivered the team to Hanks and young Lincoln.

Hall was present on the occasion of the beginning of the
journey to Illinois. However, the Lincolns only journeyed
that afternoon as far as Gentry's in Gentryville, and remained
over night with that gentleman. During the night young
Lincoln made a judicious selection of notions, such as needles,
pins, thread, knives, forks and spoons, his purchase amount-
ing to just thirty dollars. With this "peddler's outfit" he pur-
posed realizing a profit by disposing of it along the way at the
farmhouses. This he seems to have succeeded in doing beyond
his expectations, for "he wrote back after his arrival in Illi-
nois stating that he doubled his money".

The people of Gentryville were loath to see the Lincolns
leave, and it is said that on the morning of their final depar-
ture quite a crowd collected to bid them farewell. Many of
them accompanied the Lincolns some distance on their jour-
ney, among them being the elder Gentry. One man in telling
of seeing them begin their journey stated that "Abe drove the
oxen, having a rope attached to the horn of a lead ox, and with
a hickory 'gad' in his free hand."

None of the party of thirteen ever returned to the scenes
of their fourteen years' residence in Indiana save Abraham,
and, as has been stated, he spent three days in and about Gen-
tryville during the political campaign of 1844 making three
speeches in that county. He was the guest of the Gentrys
most of the time. However, after making the speech at Car-
ter's schoolhouse he accepted the urgent invitation of "Blue
Nose" Crawford to accompany him home. He was much the
same Lincoln then that his old friends had known fourteen

Mutt: Lincoln in Indiana 167

years before. He quite readily recognized all of his old
neighbors, calling them by their given names, and made in-
quiry as to certain things in which he had been especially
interested prior to his leaving there. He expressed a desire
on reaching the Crawford home to see the old whip-saw-pit
where he had stood as the "under man" on many an occasion
whip-sawing lumber.

Sometime after Lincoln had been in the White House,
seventeen years having elapsed since seeing his boyhood home
and meeting with his old friends, a gentleman from Gentry-
ville visited him in Washington, his purpose in making the
journey being merely to gratify his curiosity and pleasure in
beholding the greatness of his old boyhood friend. On his
arrival at the White House he found quite a number of people
in waiting. He sent in his name, and supposed, of course, that
the rule here would be something similar to what he and the
then present occupant of the White House had been accus-
tomed to in their boyhood in going to Gordon's Mill — first
come, first served. But he was greatly surprised a few mo-
ments after making his presence known to hear his name
called, and on entering the private office of the President he
was warmly greeted with the old time cordiality. They had
conversed but a short while when Lincoln said to him :

Now, Bill, there's a whole lot of dignitaries out there (pointing) that
are waiting to see me about something or other, and I'll tell you what
I want you to do. This is your first visit to Washington, and I reckon
you'll want to look around at the sights, so you go and do that and then
come back here about supper time and after we've had something to eat
we'll go off to ourselves, and I jings we'll have a good time talking over
old times.

This appealed to his old friend, and accordingly he re-
turned from viewing the sights of the city toward night-fall
and found Lincoln waiting for him. After they had dined Lin-
coln said : "Now come with me", and leading the way they
reached a room on the second floor. After entering, the Pres-
ident turned the key, he then pulled off his coat, and seating
himself on the small of his back with his feet resting upon the
table he began asking numerous questions concerning his old
neighbors. The narrator in telling this, said :

168 Indiana Magazine of History

Abe asked about everybody from tbe mouth of Anderson creek to
Boonville. He'd say: "Bill, who did Sis so-and-so marry? Where does
this one live? Who lives on such-and-such a farm?" By and by, closing
his eyes and drawing a long breath, he said: "Bill, how did the Gentry
boys vote in the last election?" I hesitated to tell him, for I know'd ever
one of 'em voted for Douglass and were agin him. But finally I out with
it, and Abe opened his eyes slow like, and looking straight at me for a
little bit he sorter sighed.

The statement made by some of the biographers that
Allen Gentry voted for his old flat-boat partner, in spite of the
fact that he was a Democrat, is incorrect. The writer, in an
interview with James Gentry, referred to this Gentryville
neighbor's visit to Lincoln, and Mr. Gentry exclaimed with a
laugh :

Yes, Bill told me all about it when he got back from seeing Abe, and
he said Abe 'peared to ask about everybody from Anderson clean down
to Boonville, but he left us boys to the last. Never even mentioned our
names till he asked how we all voted, and when Bill told him we all went
agin him, by gum, it mighty nigh broke old Abe's heart. Course, fellows
like us goin' agin him would hurt, I reckon, but them was purty stormy
times, and we know'd it would take a smart man to run things, and we'd
all grow'd up with Abe and while we liked him, and we know'd that Abe
could hold his own in a tussle, we didn't think he was big enough to
wrastle with such questions that was up then. Besides, by gum, we was
all Democrats and believed Judge Douglass could take matters in hand.

When it was suggested that Lincoln managed to keep
house pretty well after all, Gentry laughed heartily and said :

O, Abe always tracked the Constitution, and as long as he done that
he had 'em. Then he followed Henry Clay in lots of things such as his
African Colonization scheme and gradual emancipation and the like, and
you know old Henry was purty tolerable hard to head off. So Abe just
stood there between all of them fellers and made 'em take their medicine.
Abe come out all right in the end, but if he hadn't a stood by the Constitu-
tion, and if he'd got off on something else like a whole lot of the rest of
'em did, he'd a never a made it. It was stickin' to the Constitution that
done it.

When Wesley Hall was asked as to whether he at any time
during his youth was inclined to the belief that Lincoln would
some day become famous, he straightway replied :

Abe would have been one of the last ones of our crowd that I'd a ever
dreamed about becoming President. I would have picked out one or two

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 169

of the boys that was a heap more likely than him. Not but what Abe
was smart and all that, but he was so tall, lean, lank and ugly, and went
lumbering around so and was always a jokin' and cuttin' up, and I couldn't
see anything in him then that looked like my notion of what a President
ort to be.

When it was suggested to Hall, by way of provoking fur-
ther comment, that Lincoln certainly was one of our great
men, he exclaimed :

Yes, he is and the greatest too, but what made him so great? I'll tell
you, it wusn't because he was educated, for he had no chance down here
them days, but Abe just acted up there at Washington like he would any-
wheres else, and whenever anything comes up he just done what wuz
right, that's all. It was nothing but Abe's honesty that made him great,
and when you come to think about it that oughn't to be so strange. That's
what all of us boys was taught them days, and I think I've been honest
myself all of my life, just as honest as Abe ever was fer that matter.

When it was further suggested that Lincoln managed
things pretty well and overcame great obstacles, Hall ob-
served :

Yes, that's so, but after all when all is said and done, it always comes
back to what I say. Abe always just done what was right about every-
thing, that's all. If somebody else'd been in his place that'd a been as
honest as he was and a alius done about what's right, everything'd a
come out all right.

The simplicity of Lincoln's life, his democratic spirit, his
approachableness, living the life of a commoner while the
executive head of the nation, are quite in keeping with his oft
expressed partiality for and faith in the common people. He
was the very embodiment of the homlier virtues of truth, sin-
cerity and honesty. The temptations ordinarily would have
been strong upon one like Lincoln in the heyday of his power
either to attempt to conceal his humble beginnings, his pov-
erty and lack of schooling, or on the other hand to have re-
ferred boastfully to them. Not the least mark of his greatness
is the fact that he did neither. What modesty forbad in this,
as in other things, his honesty and good sense approved, so
that the democracy of manhood in him shines like a beacon
light, dimming the glare of burnished and furbished greatness
in the many so-called great men.

170 Indiana Magazine of History

General Andrew Jackson has ever been popularly re-
garded as one possessing that democracy of spirit scarcely
equalled by any other chief executive of our nation. It may be
altogether fitting in this connection to relate an incident hav-
ing to do with this element in "Old Hickory". An old Shen-
andoah Valley neighbor of the writer often related the follow-
ing circumstance concerning Jackson, and since it seems good
enough to be true, and judging by the character and standing
of the old neighbor, it is believed to be true.

Some twenty-five teamsters were hauling iron ore to
Georgetown from a point in Virginia, each man driving a four-
horse team. It was while Jackson was President that on one
occasion, after the wagons and teams had been disposed of in
the big wagon yards at Georgetown, an uncle of the informant,
Baker by name, proposed to the crowd that they go over to
the White House and pay their respects to "Old Hickory".
Practically all of the men opposed the proposition, since they
were in their work-a-day garb, and it was suggested by some
that on their next trip they come prepared for this visit to
the White House by each bringing along suitable apparel. But
Baker was insistent, and so much so that one man, to some ex-
tent spokesman for all the rest, said, addressing Baker: "If
you'll do all the talking, we'll go." Whereupon Baker replied :
"Certainly, I'll do that provided all of you will do what I ask
you to do." When it was asked as to what was expected of
them, Baker drew his black-snake whip about his neck and
tying the free end of the lash into a bow with the stock hanging
down in front, not unlike a yoke, said : "Now, men, all of you do
as I have and then fall in line by twos and follow me." This was
done, and the twenty-five Virginians marched up to the White
House, with Baker leading them. When the door opened in
response to their ring, an old-time colored man stood looking
out upon this strange sight, manifesting surprise, and then
bowing quite low he asked what was wanted. Baker, true
to his promise, acted as spokesman and straightway requested
that the party be taken in and given an audience with the Pres-
ident. The door closed behind the old colored man, and er^
long it was opened again, and with another low bow the old
fellow announced: "Gemmen, de President's busy and can't

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 171

see you." But Baker was not to be disposed of so easily, for
now quickly stepping up near the old man and lifting his voice,
cried out : "We came to see the President, and we are going
to do so before we go away." Just then a voice within, with
a sort of military ring in it, was heard asking: "What's
the matter out front? What does that crowd of men want?"
Presently the door was thrown wide open, sending the old ser-
vant with it, and Jackson stood facing Baker and his twenty-
four neighbors. The President, without any word of greeting
or salutation, immediately asked: "What's wanted, men?"
Baker, having uncovered and each man doing so in like man-
ner, replied: "Mr. President, we are Virginians and your
friends, and we have no business with you at all save that we
just wished to call and see you, that's all." Jackson's brow,
which at first was knitted into a frown, at once cleared, and
turning about face he said to Baker and his men : "Follow
me." Baker leading the way and the men following by twos,
each one with his hat under his arm, filed into a "big room on
the right." As they entered it was observed that quite a num-
ber of well-dressed gentlemen were in the room, and seeing
the Virginians following Jackson they all arose and quickly
stepped back near the wall with a look of astonishment and
wonder upon each face. Jackson did not stop until a small
table was reached on the opposite side of the room from the
door of entrance, and going behind this and resting his hand
upon it with a sort of lurking twinkle in either eye, he said,
addressing Baker who now stood immediately in front of him :
"You say that you are Virginians and wish to see me. Is there
anything I can do for you?" to which Baker replied:

No, sir, Mr. President, we have not come to ask any favor of you,
as I said. These men with me are my neighbors. We are all Virginians
and your friends and supporters. We are teamsters and haul iron ore to
Georgetown, and I proposed that we come over and call on you. Some of
the men did not want to come dressed as we are, and I told them we'd go
just as you see us."

While Baker was making this explanation it was ob-
served that a peculiar look came over the President's features
as if he were especially pleased, and then he said : "You say

172 Indiana Magazine of History

you just wished to see the President, and now that you have
seen 'Old Hickory' what do you think of him?"

Baker, apparently being equal to just such an emergency
as this, quickly observed : "Mr. President, we think he does
pretty well for a 'shell bark'." Some of the men composing
the party afterward confessed grave fears as to just how this
.familiarity of their spokesman would be received, but all sus-
pense was quickly relieved by Jackson giving himself up to
unrestrained laughter. Straightening up to his full stature,
with his features set hard, and looking toward the gentlemen
standing about the wall, he said :

Gentlemen, you are all Englishmen and accustomed as you are to cer-
tain things, you no doubt gaze with wonder and perhaps surprise upon a
scene like this. You very naturally ask what is the secret of our great-
ness as a nation and how we are going to maintain our liberties. I'll
answer you by saying that we have had two wars with your nation,
although now we are happily at peace. I had something to do in both of
these wars, and I whipped your army at New Orleans with an army com-
posed of men just like these Virginians here, and as long as men in their
work-a-day clothes think they have a right to come to the nation's Capitol
and call on their ruler, so long will our liberties be safe.

Following these remarks Jackson stepped quickly among
the Virginians and taking each by the hand gave words of
greeting. General Jackson was quite democratic, hating kings
and monarchies, but at the same time possessing more or less
of the imperialistic spirit, while Lincoln possessed all of the
democracy of Jackson and none of the other spirit.

Death and Burial of Nancy Hanks Lincoln

"All that I am or ever hope to be I owe to my angel
of a mother."

"I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of
mine that would attempt to beguile you from a grief of
a loss so overwhelming."

In the year 1818 Abraham Lincoln experienced a great
misfortune in the death of his mother. The many exacting
duties incident to pioneer life doubtless constituted a factor
in producing that strange melancholy that ever possessed him,
but to be bereft of his mother at the age of ten was perhaps

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 173

in the main responsible for this. At least it justifies the
belief that such a sad misfortune at this period of his life,
together with some of the attending circumstances, readily
took advantage of a latent predisposition so characteristic of
his mother.

Comparatively little is known concerning Nancy Hanks
and there is small wonder, since nothing eventful transpired
in her life beyond those things common to the pioneer. Al-
lusion has already been made to the early belief of her neigh-
bors and her more immediate relatives as to her obscure
origin. She certainly did not attempt to correct this belief,
and doubtless was possessed with the same idea as were
others. That there has been a more or less labored effort on
the part of certain biographers of Mr. Lincoln to account for
his exceptional ability by professing a marked partiality for
his maternal ancestry is known to all.

Dennis Hanks, as reported by Elinor Adkinson in The Boy
Lincoln, said :

We wus all pore thein clays, but the Lincolns was poorer than any-
body. Choppin' trees an' grubbin' roots an' trappin' didn't leave Tom no
time. It wus all lie could do to git his family enough to eat an' to
kiver 'em. Nancy was terribly ashamed of the way they lived, but she
knowed Tom wus doiu' his best an' she wusn't the pesteriu' kind. She
wus purty as a pictur an' smart as you'd find 'em anywhere. She could
read and write. The Hankses wus some smarter 'n the Lincolns. Tom
thought a heap of Nancy, an' he wus as good to her as he knowd how.
He didn't drink or swear or play cyards or light; an' them wus drinkin,'
cussin', quarrelsome days. Tom wus popyler an' he could lick a bully
If he had to. He jest couldn't get a head some how.

Mr. Herndon, the friend and law partner of Mr. Lincoln,
and later his biographer, in speaking of Lincoln's mother,
said :

At the time of her marriage to Thomas Lincoln, Nancy was in her
twenty-third year. She was above the ordinary height in stature, weighed
about one hundred and thirty pounds; was slenderly built and had much
the appearance of one inclined to consumption. Her skin was dark; her
hair dark brown, eyes grey and small ; forehead prominent, face sharp
and angular with an expression of melancholy which fixed itself in the
memory of anyone who ever saw or knew her. Though her life was
seemingly clouded by a spirit of sadness, she was in disposition amiable
and generally cheerful. Mr. Lincoln said to me in 1851, on receiving the

174 Indiana Magazine of History

news of his father's death, that whatever might be said of his parents
and however unpromising the early surroundings of his mother may have
been, she was highly intellectual by nature and had a strong memory,
acute judgment, and was cool and heroic. From a mental standpoint she
no doubt rose above her surroundings, and had she lived, the stimulus
of her nature would have accelerated her son's success. She would have
been a much more ambitious prompter than his father ever 'was.

That Mr. Lincoln possessed the melancholy self-control,
cool and calculating judgment and natural goodness of his
mother is apparent, and even marks of facial resemblance are
conceded. Some certain and important traits of character
are also traceable to the father, and taking it all in all these
latter qualities are quite as important as were the others.
That faculty and habit of story telling so natural to the Presi-
dent, his peculiar and quaint method of relating them and
their appreantly inexhaustible supply were characteristic of
not only his father, but true of his uncles, Mordecai and
Josiah, as well as of many of his Lincoln cousins.

Without suggesting any lack in the family of his mother
of that greatest of all traits which he possessed — that of
honesty — and for which he is so justly famed, it must be said
in all fairness that whatever by nature, example and precept
he received from the mother that caused a nation to call her
son "Honest Abe", certainly honesty was a dominant trait of
the father and the one characteristic that stands out so promi-
nently in the life of practically every Lincoln. Dennis Hanks
confessed that Lincoln was indebted to his father for his
uncompromising honesty rather than to the Hankses.

Judging by the data in hand, therefore, it may be said
that the Lincolns were the equal of the Hankses in social
standing and ancestry, and in fact there is discerned a favor-
able comparison in substantially all other things ordinarily
considered in such matters.

It should particularly be said that the meagerness of
knowledge concerning Nancy Hanks, and more especially her
early death, furnished a large field for conjecture and the
freest possible play of the imagination. Since Thomas Lin-
coln lived until the year 1851, having ever remained a simple-
minded, illiterate pioneer, never at any time distinguishing

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 175

himself, it became the fashion to speak lightly and even dis-
paragingly of him as compared to his wife, Nancy Hanks, who
dying while quite young, became a subject for adulation and
eulogy, and whatever was deemed wanting in the father and
husband was readily supposed to have been possessed by the
mother and wife.

That Nancy Hanks was somewhat exceptional and in every
way worthy of such an illustrious son appears to be abun-
dantly evident in spite of the meagerness of data at hand.
That she must have wielded a strong influence upon him is
equally true, and perhaps even greater than we can possibly
know. Yet, in all fairness it must be said that Mr. Lincoln
seldom mentioned his mother in later life, but again and
again paid great tribute to his stepmother and it was tne step-
mother, not Nancy Hanks, of who he spoke when he used the
oft-quotetd lines (usually misquoted) : "Al that I am and
ever hope to be I owe to my angel of a mother."

Any attempt to account for the remarkable career of
Abraham Lincoln must give a large place to the plans and
purposes of the Almighty. The Jewish nation spent four
centuries in a strange land before it produced its great
prophet, military leader and law-giver, Moses. We do not
ordinarily attempt to account for the career of Moses by
emphasizing his lineage and learning so much as we do the
fact that God was with him from the time he was placed in
the little pitch basket among the bulrushes of the Nile until
the day when he climbed the mount to die.

Bishop Charles Fowler, in his lecture on "Abraham Lin-
coln", related the following incident in the life of the Presi-
dent which transpired when Lincoln was twenty-eight years
of age. A short distance from Springfield, Illinois, an old-
fashioned camp-meeting was in progress in a grove. A party
of seven men, composed of physicians, lawyers and ministers,
had decided to attend these services one night.

On this particular occasion Lincoln was in a hilarious
mood, joking with the lawyers, preachers and doctors in suc-
cession, and even thrusting humorous remarks upon the
horses drawing the vehicle in which they were riding. He

176 Indiana Magazine of History

kept every one laughing by his stories and "yarns", until the
grove was reached.

That evening a pioneer minister preached a sermon of
unusual power, occasioning considerable religious excitement.
While the discourse throughout was stirring and thoughtful,
the peroration was particularly so. In this he referred to
Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage,
and laid stress upon the fact that God had called him for such
a purpose in the fulness of time. Then, as was frequently
the case in pulpits of that day, he pronounced a curse upon
African slavery in America, prophesying that "the Almighty
would raise up a leader to smite this curse." As he closed his
remarks he lifted his hands beseechingly, and in a burst of
prophetic fervor exclaimed : "Who knows but that the man
destined to liberate the slaves in our land is here tonight."

On the return journey of the group, for whom Lincoln
had furnished so much amusement and fun, he was strange-
ly silent, so much so as to speak only occasionaly when ad-
dressed by some member of the party. This silence was
noted by all, and elicited more or less comment on the follow-
ing day. Sometime during the day after the journey taken,
one member of the camp-meeting visitors had occasion to
call on Lincoln, and found him still gloomy and depressed.
Thinking to rally him by some reference to the occurrences of
the evening before, he proceeded to do so, and thereupon Lin-
coln remarked as follows :

You remember, of course, what the preacher said about slavery and
in his peroration that "God would raise up a man to smite slavery", and
closed by saying : "Who knows but that he is here tonight." Well, you
and others may thing me foolish, but I had the conviction then and still
have it that I am that man.

At the time of the death of Lincoln's mother there was
mourning in practically every home of the entire neighbor-
hood, for that dread disease peculiar to the pioneer days,
known as milk-sick, had appeared in epidemic form and at-
tacked beasts as well as men. Thomas and Betsy Sparrow,
who had in part reared Nancy Hanks, and who had fol-
lowed the Lincolns to Indiana, living in the abandoned half
faced camp, were both stricken with this scourge and died

Mutt: Lincoln in Indiana 111

about the same time Mrs. Lincoln did. In fact, of the twenty-
five families in this settlement, many of whom were former
Kentucky neighbors of the Lincolns, more than half were
claimed by this strange malady.

Medical assistance was not to be had nearer than thirty
miles; and even had there been sufficient attention, it is
altogether doubtful whether the ravages of this destroyer of
the pioneers could have been arrested.

One may form some idea of the extent to which the pion-
eers were governed by stern necessity when it is recalled that
Thomas Lincoln, the husband, on the death of his wife was
forced to perform a part of the offices of an undertaker.
There being no one save himself in that community sufficiently
skilled with tools to construct a coffin, he did this, and at the
same time made coffins in which to bury Thomas and Betsy
Sparrow. He was not a stranger to this kind of work, since
he was in the habit of doing it for the entire community.
The lumber with which the coffin for Nancy Hanks Lincoln
was made was whipsawed out of a log unused in the building
of the wilderness cabin. Dennis Hanks and Thomas Lincoln
sawed the planks, and while they were thus engaged, Abra-
ham whittled out the wooden pins which the elder Lincoln
used to fasten the planks together, there being no nails in
this part of the world at that time.

The writer knew two persons who were present at the
funeral of Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Her burial, which took
place a few hundred yards to the south of the cabin home,
was denied even the usual committal services, there being no
officiating minister present. Indeed, at this time there was no
church or minister nearer than thirty miles.

The writer on one occasion had pointed out to him the
spot near the foot of the grave where little Abraham stood
weeping while the rude casket was being lowered. The Rev-
erend Allen Brooner, then a mere lad, was present on this
occasion. He lost his own mother a few days after the burial
of Mrs. Lincoln and she was buried by the side of Lincoln's
mother; consequently the circumstances became indelibly
fixed in his memory. No stone marked these graves for years,
and when it was proposed to erect a small monument to the

178 Indiana Magazine of History

memory of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, there was some difference
of opinion as to which of the two graves was hers, but the
statement of Brooner was final.

Although Abraham was but ten years of age at this time,
yet impressed with the fact that his mother's memory was
entitled to the usual funeral services that h.e had been accus-
tomed to witness, he wrote a letter requesting the services of
Parson Elkins, an itinerant Baptist minister who resided in
Kentucky, and who had visited the home of the Lincolns in
that State, frequently conducting services there and doubt-
less officiated at the burial of his baby brother. At any rate,
Elkins had impressed himself upon the mind and heart of
the lad so that he did not hesitate to presume upon his good
offices by asking that he travel a hundred miles through this
wilderness.

The boy's confidence in thus presuming upon the willing-
ness of the pioneer preacher to come to him in his need was
not misplaced, for although he made this journey and
preached the funeral discourse at the grave side without re-
muneration, yet, like Mary in breaking the alabaster box of
precious ointment, Parson Elkins' offices on this occasion have
enshrined his memory in the hearts of Christendom and his
name by this one deed alone has been redeemed from that
oblivion to which it would have otherwise been consigned.

One may stand at the grave side of the mother of Lin-
coln today, look through the woods to the north and see the
little knoll on which then stood the cabin where now looms
up with comparatively large dimensions a high school build-
ing immediately in front of the cabin site — an institution
that would have been regarded by Lincoln in his youth as
Heaven sent.

Marked changes have been wrought since that mournful
pioneer funeral procession took its sad way down the slope
and through the wood to the elevated spot where his mother
sleeps. In making this little journey now one crosses the
steam railroad track, passes beneath the telephone and tele-
graph wires, and walks by the mouth of a coal mine — all
telling of another civilization and another age, for they all
came after Lincoln's removal to Illinois.

Marr: Lincoln in Indiana 179

It is claimed, and not without sufficient grounds, that the
place where the future President spent his youth and reached
his majority, and where he formed and matured his char-
acter, possessing as he did while yet a youth substantially all
of those eminent traits that we are accustomed to note in him
as a man, that place where his mother now sleeps and where
his only sister lies buried, is of the greatest possible interest,
and in view of such world-wide admiration of Lincoln it is
deserving of suitable recognition by our general government.

The State of Indiana some years since, aided by indi-
viduals, erected a modest monument to the memory of Nancy
Hanks Lincoln, the mother of the President, and made pur-
chase of the grounds adjoining her burial place which now
constitute what is known as Lincoln park.

As commendable as was this belated tribute, unfortunately
the site of the cabin home of Lincoln was not included in this
purchase and this place yet remains in the hands of private
individuals. Should there come a time (and it will) when
this spot shall have been appropriately honored beyond that
hitherto attempted, and some President of the United States
in official capacity shall journey thither and deliver an ad-
dress, if perchance in the course of his remarks he should
give utterance to some such sentiment as the following, he
would only be speaking true to history:

Here on this spot in the year 1816 Thomas Lincoln erected a log
cabin in which was reared his son Abraham, our first typical American,
who in temperamental make up, in certain marked characteristics, in
the simplicity of his life and character, was the embodiment of those
traits of honesty and truthfulness which pre-eminently characterized the
pioneer Hoosier citizen. Three States of our Union had to do in shaping
his destiny and fashioning his great career. Kentucky gave him birth,
in the day of his power Illinois offered him to the country in the hour
of the Nation's crisis; but it was here in Indiana that these enduring
traits of character found their setting, without which he would have
failed in his gigantic task, and, possessing them as he did, they later
fashioned him into a mighty leader destined under God to give this
nation a new birth of freedom, that "the government of the people for
the people and by the people might not perish from the earth."

In a year after the death of Mrs. Lincoln, Thomas Lin-
coln made a visit to his old home in Kentucky, leaving Dennis

180 Indiana Magazine of History

Hanks, Abraham and his sister Sarah in the wilderness. The
motive in making this visit became apparent to those re-
maining behind when on his return he brought with him a
bride and her three children, Matilda, Sarah and John D.
Johnson, children by a former marriage. The second Mrs.
Lincoln, who was destined to wield a remarkable influence
over the future President, was a woman somewhat above the
average pioneer. Her coming to this destitute home was
timely, since Abraham had now reached that age when he
stood in need of just such encouragement and sympathy as
she was eminently capable of giving and which she freely be-
stowed upon him.

In an interview with Mr. Herndon she said, in speaking
of this period and of Abraham in particular :

I induced my husband to permit Abe to read and study at borne as
well as at school. At first he was not easily reconciled to it, but finally
he seemed willing to encourage him to a certain extent. Abe was a
dutiful son to me always. We took particular care when he was reading
not to disturb him, and we let him read on and on until he quit of his
own accord.

Notwithstanding the fact that Mrs. Lincoln had been left
a widow, and at the time of her marriage to Thomas Lincoln
was living "on an alley of the town in a log cabin," she was
highly regarded by her neighbors and possessed a pride and
bearing quite beyond that which her condition would ordi-
narily appear to warrant. The proud spirit that character-
ized her then was never broken by any of the vicissitudes of
her later years. She was quite superior in many ways to
her husband. Her gifts and graces were so pronounced as
to call forth in later years splendid tributes of praise from
both her own children and her step son. The changes wrought
in the wilderness cabin home soon after her coming occa-
sioned neighborhood comment, and made such an impression
upon Dennis Hanks, an inmate of the home and later her son-
in-law, as to cause that gentleman to pay her grateful praise.

Aside from the refinement and culture which she pos-
sessed, tending to inspire her household to emulate her, she
caused her husband to make certain needful changes in the
cabin by hanging a door, laying a floor and cutting a win-

Murr: Lincoln in Indiana 181

dow. She brought with her certain household effects, such
as beds, bedding, bureau, many cooking utensils, knives and
forks — in all a four horse wagon load, so that there is small
wonder the cheerless cabin took on new life and caused Abra-
ham in later life, when recalling these scenes, to say: "She
made me feel like I was human."

It is claimed that at this time young Abraham was a good
boy, affectionate, loving his parents well and obedient to their
every wish. Although anything but impudent or rude, he
was sometimes uncomfortably inquisitive when strangers
would ride along or pass by his father's fence, and he always,
either through boyish pride or to tease his father, would be
sure to ask the first question. For this his father would
sometimes knock him over, but when thus punished he never
"bellowed, but would drop a kind of silent unwelcome tear as
evidence of his sensitiveness or other feelings."

So inquisitive and eager for news was he that on one
occasion when a stranger rode up to the Lincoln home to
make inquiries as to the road Abraham straightway asked :
"What's the news, stranger?" Before any reply could be
made the father, who was attempting to give proper direc-
tions of the way, turned and rebuked his son for his inter-
ruption. In a moment or two young Abraham again asked:
"Stranger, what's the news where you come from?" This
time the indignant father, desiring to silence the inquisitive
son, quickly swung his arm, struck the boy full in the mouth
with the back of the hand, knocking him down. Young Lin-
coln, on regaining his feet and perching himself at a safe
distance on the fence, as the stranger was drawing rein pre-
paratory to ride on his way, once more eagerly asked: "I
say, stranger, what is the news?"

During his Indiana residence up to the time of his moth-
er's death, Abraham Lincoln had not been privileged to at-
tend school. Soon after the coming of his step mother to
the home he was sent to school, his first teacher being Mr.
Dorsey who "kept school" not far from the Little Pigeon
church. In all he attended three different sessions or terms
during his Indiana residence, one at ten years of age, another
at fourteen and a very brief term during his seventeenth

182 Indiana Magazine of History

year. The entire time thus spent in the school room was less
than one year during his life, and he was indebted to his
step mother for the privilege of attending school at all after
reaching an age when such an opportunity might reasonably
promise profit. Such privilege was accompanied by a keen
appreciation and gratitude that enabled him richly to repay
her in later years for her kindness and partiality. The debt
that mankind owes this elect lady can never now be paid save
in grateful remembrance of her timely foresight, and thank-
fulness for wisdom and direction perhaps not altogether of
Earth. From the first Lincoln and his step-mother became
great friends. In her old age she expressed a decided par-
tiality for him, even indicating a love beyond that for her
own son.

Lincoln's great stature and lumbering gait were a subject
of neighborhood comment, and Mrs. Lincoln and his father
often joked him concerning them also. The elder Lincoln
was in the habit of remarking that "Abe looked like he had
been chopped out with an ax and needed the jack plane to
smooth him down." Mrs. Lincoln said to him on one occa-
sion when she saw him "bump" his head as he came through
the cabin door: "Abe, I don't care much about the mud you
carry in on the floor, for that can be scrubbed, but you must
be careful with my whitewashed ceiling and not damage it."
The next day young Lincoln hunted up a crowd of young-
sters, and after causing them to wade through a pond of
muddy water, he marched them to the Lincoln cabin, picked
them up one by one and made them walk across the ceiling
with their muddy feet. When Mrs. Lincoln came home and
noted the condition of the ceiling she laughed right heartily.
Abraham then walked a long distance after lime, prepared
whitewash, and once more made the cabin ceiling immacu-
late.

INDEX.

(The uanies of contributors are printed iu small caps, the
books in italics and tbe titles of articles in quotation marks.)

titles of

Adams, Benjamin. 36

Allen. James. 56

Allen. Solomon, 148

Allensville, founded. 153
"Alpha, The." by Jonathan

Kidwell, 15

Anti-Leeompton Democrats. .'J71 seq.

Aristocracy, office holding, 103

Babcock, Judah, 17

Balfour, William

Ballard, Rev. T. E., 164

Ballon, Hosea, 12

Banks, General, 42

Bank of Madison, founded by

John Paul. 143

Barce. Elmore, an article by. 67 seq.
Barker, Col. Joseph, 1

Barron. Joseph, 73. 7S seq.

Barry. A. C. 6

Bee, Joe. fugitive slave, 290

Before and After Winchester,

J. A. Stonek, 4

Bennington, Bid., founded. 154

Biddle, Horace P.. 353

Biddlecoiue. Daniel R., 5

Bigelow, Rev. Timothy, 2

Black, Gen. John Charles. 27

Blackford, Isaac.
Boon, Moses.
Boon, Ratliff.
Boone, Daniel.
Boone, Isaiah,
Boone's Route,
"Boone Way",

"Both Sides of Religious Cere-
monies", Robert Smith,
Braddock. General,

22. 28, 29, 39, 41
12
41
22, 29, 30, 56
39
66
56-59

6
60

Breckinridge Democrats.
Bright, Jesse D.,
Brookville, founding of.

Historical Society.
Brouillette. Michel.
Butler, Amos W., "Notes

Concerning Brookville.

Ind., a Century Ago'
Butler, Mary Wallace,

Cambridge Association.

Camden,

Campaign of 184U, 125 seq ;
from 1840 to 1860,

Carr, George W.,

Candidates, announcement of

Caucuses, feeling in Indiana
toward,

Chappie, Jesse.

Chippewas,

Clark, Gen. George Rogers,
58 ; influence on John Paul

Clark. W. S.,

Clay, Henry,

Clifford, John,

Coburn, Henry P.,

Coffin, Abigail.

"Colonel John Paul. Hoosier
Pioneer", by Blanche
Goode Garber, 129-145

Constitution Making in In-
diana, by Charles Kettle-
borough, (Review) 202 seq.

Constitution of 1816, contem-
porary newspaper criticism
of, 104 seq.

Convention, state and coun-
ty, 115

377

350, 354

146

150

73. 77

146-150
147

13
42

127
368 seq.

103

111

13

69,74

132
10
60, 61, 62

164
35
58

414

Index

Convention, 1851, Democrats,

211; Whig, 211; Free Soil.

I'll; county, 216 seq. ; Fu-

sion, 234 ; "Old Liners"

1856, 249; Peoples.

256

Cook, J. S.,

164

Cooper, John,

13

Copebart, Thomas.

13

Corydon Debating Society,

34

Council at Vincennes,

SO

County Convention, first one

(Harrison Co.) Ill seq. ;

Greene County,

113

Course, William,

12, 13

Craig, George,

153

Craig, Merrett, a typical

early political campaign,

123

Crawford. Dr. Josiah. 338 seq.

"Greeks",

84

Crisis of 1824 in Indiana

Politics,

110

Crocket, Davy,

61

Crosly, M. D.,

164

Cross. Capt. Percy.

90

Curry, Rev. Hiram.

0

Dunbar, John N.,
Duncan, Frank N.,

Hi, i>S
96

150

Fads, William H.,

"Farly Days in Switzerland
County", by Annette Dan-
glade, 151-156

Eaton, T. C, 10

Edwards, M. P., 13

Electioneering, the old way, 123 seq.

Election, congressional, 1854,
241; State, 245; Congres-
sional 1850, 267 ; State, 268
contemporary newspapers, 179 seq.

Elections, first one in Switz-
erland County,

Electoral ticket.

Ellington, Pleasant, fugitive
slave case,

Emmet, W. Y..

English, William E.,

Esaeey, Logan, "The Pioneer
Aristocracy",
"Pioneer Politics in In-
diana", 99-128

153
114

218

5

355

TO-287

Danglade, Annette, "Earlj
Days in Switzerland Conn

ty",

Davies, Samuel,
Davies, A. A..

151-156

131

5

Estell, Capt. James.

Evansville,

Everlasting Gospel, The, Paul

Seigvolck,
Ewing. George,

58
2

2
13

Dean, W. W.,

14

Dellart, Geu. Richard P.,

67

Fitch, Graham W.,

350

Del a wares,

83

Floyd, Maj. George R.,

80

Democracy and Indiana.

109

Foster, B. F.,

15

Democrats, comparison with

Foster, Harriet McIntyre,

Election, description of, fr

0111

"Memories of the National

Whigs 1824-52.

116

seq.

Road",

60-66

Democrats, humanitarian

Foxes,

69,78

policy,

117

Franklin, (Ind. ), Universal-

Dewey, Judge Charles,

100

ist Convention at,

2,3

Doctors in early Indiana.

338

seq.

Frauds in voting,

118

Douglas, Stephen A.,

308

seq.

Free Church,

7

Dubois, Toussaint,

7

2.77

Fremont, Mrs. Jessie,

62

Du Four, Daniel.

155

Fusion Movement in Indiana,

Du Four. John James.

151

seq.

1854, 211 seq. : 238

Index

415

Hammond, Gov. Abram. 140, 350
Halcyon churches, 2

Hall, Clifton R., "Andrew

Johnson, Military Govern-
or of Tennessee" (Review) 189 seq.
Hall, D. D., 4

Hall, Wesley, 322 seq.

Hancock County, History of,

George J. Rich man, 04

Hanks, Dennis, 313,334

Hanks, Joseph, 316 seq.

Hanks, Lucy, 333

Hanna, Roberts, 140

Hardin county, Ky., 134

Harding, Samuel B., 13

Harding, Stephen S., 140

Harrison, Pres. Benjamin, 64

Harrison, William Henry, 1, 20 seq.
Harrison's vigilance, 73 seq.

Harrison county convention,

first one in history, 111 seq.

Gallatin, Albert,

61

Harrison and Tyler cam-

Gano, Maj. I. S.,

1

paign in 1840,

125

seq.

Garber, Blanche Goode,

Harrod, Oapt. William,

132

seq.

"Colonel John Paul, Hoos-

Henderson, John,

149

ier Pioneer; First Propri-

Henderson, Col. Richard,

58

etor and Founder of Xenia,

Hendricks, Ann Parker Paul,

135

Ohio, and Madison, In-

Hendricks. Gov. William,

diana",

120-145

22. 26. 37,

41,

102

Garber, M. C,

370

seq.

Herron, John,

9

"Gentlemen Volunteers of

Hewson, Thomas,

1

3.14

1812",

141

Highfill, Thomas,

37

Germans, in politics,

251

Hollow ell, Mary,

58

German Mysticism,

1

Hollister, J. J..

5

Gibson, Gen. John,

81

Holinan, Joseph,

23

Gird, Em

14

Hooker, Brainard ; The First

Gooch, J. A. N.,

14

Century of the Public

Gookins, Samuel B..

352

Schools of Tiypceanoe

Gordeu, George,

1,2

County,

04

Greathouse, John,

30

Household Manufactures in

Greely, Horace,

361

the United States, by R.

Greene county convention.

113

seq.

M. Tryon (Reviewed)

298

Greegs, David,

13

Houseworth, Henry,

168

Gresham, Walter Q.,

2S

Houston, Sam.

61

Grosble,

77

Hurons.

76

Gurley, Rev. John A.,

4

Hurst, Benjamin.

37

Independent Universalist, E.

M. Knapp, 27

Indiana and Presidential

Elections, 99

Indiana as Seen by Early

Travelers, by Harlow

Lindly (Review) 204

Indiana's first political crisis,

lOl.llOseff.
Indiana Gazetteer, 23. 32 seq.

"Itinerant Vagabonds",

243

Jackson, Maj. Gen. Andrew,

38

Jacksonburg, (0.), Univer-

salist Convention at,

2

Jacksonian electors,

115

Jacksonian party, political

organization of,

116

Jacksonian spoils system in

1820.

125

416

Index

Jefferson county (Ind. ) rec-
ords, 109: Name,

Jefferson, Thomas,

Jeffersonian or Jaeksonian
politics, 101, 110

Jeffersonian Republican party
in Indiana,

Jenkinson, John,

Jenks, Samuel,

Jennings, Jonathan,

22, 25. 28, 36, 39, 41,

John. It. N„

Johnson, Andrew, Military
Governor of Tennessee, by
Flifton It, Hall (Review) 1.89

Johnson, Hadly D..

Johnson, John.

Johnson, T. H.,

Johnston, John,

Jolly, S. W. H..

Jonas, John,

Jones, Aquilla,

Tudah, .Samuel, writer of
first platform.

Julian, George W., 363

141
61

seq.

100

101
160

seq.

148

22

5

75

5

33

359

115
seq.

350.

Kansas in Indiana politics. 252 seq.
Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 219;

effect on Indiana politics, 222 seq.
Kettleborough, Charles, Con-
stitution Making in In-
dia n a ( Review ) 2< 12 seq.
Kickapoos, 68
Kidwe11, Rev. Jonathan,

3, 4, 5. 14, 15-19
Kidwell-Manford controversy,

The, 15-19

Kilgore, David. 355

Kinman, Levi, 12, 13

Kuapp, E. M., Independent

Universalist, 7, 18

Knapp, S. H., 13

Knight. James. 148

Know Nothings. 226. 24S, 203.370

371

64

13, 19

349 seq.

342 seq.

Lane, H. S.,

Latham. Dr. William,

Laughery Association, The,

Lecompton Struggle, The,

Lincoln as a preacher,

Lincoln, Nancy Hanks,

SiS seq., 333 setf.

"Lincoln in Indiana". J.

Edward Murk, 307-348

Lincoln. Josiah. 307 seq., 331

Lincoln, Mrs. Sally Rush, 314 seq.

Lincoln, Thomas. 307 seg., 332

Lindley, Harlow, Indiana as
Seen by Early Travelers.
(Review), 204

Little, Horace B., "Remin-
iscences of the Civil War", 42-55

Little Rock, 42

Little Pigeon Baptist church, 342 seq.

Logan, Benjamin,

Logan, Gen. John A..

Longly. Rev. A. II.,

Lovell. Maj. J. M.,

Lower Wabash Association.

Ludlow. Charlotte,

Lynch, William O., (Re-
view) of Charles Kettle-
borough's Constitution
Making in Indiana.

58

310

1,5
■ >

in

9

202

Laboyteaux, P. J.,
LnFollette, Robert.

140

McCarty, William M., 371
McCleery, William, 148
McCormick Family as pio-
neers, The, 92. 93
McCormick. John, 92
McCune. G. C. 14
McTntire, Dr. Thomas, 63
McNemar. Richard. 70
Mace, Daniel, 369 seq.
Maine Law. struggle for in

Indiana, 212 seq.

Manford. Erasmus, 5, 0

Mann. E. B.. 6.12.14.17
Manners and customs of

Hoosier pioneers, 335 seq.

Manwaring. Solomon, 147

Index

417

Maps; Indiana in 1810,
Thomas' Travels, 309;
Congressional Election

1854, 387 ; Congressional
Election 1856, 389; Con-
gressional Election 1860,

Markland, Ind., founded.

Martz, Letter from.

Meek, Alexander,

"Memories of the National
Road". Harriet McIntyre
Foster,

Merrill, Samuel,

Methodists, in politics, 1856.

Mexican War Diary of
George B. McClellan, by
William Starr Myers (Re-
view),

Miami Confederacy.

Miamis,

Michigan, Economic and So-
fia! Beginnings of, by
(George X. Fuller, (Re-
view).

Mississinewa,

•'Monroe county. Under-
ground Railroad in", 288
seq. ; conductors. 289; sta-
tions,

Monroe, Pres. .Tames.

Moore, H. H.,

Moores, Charles, "Old Cory-
don",

Moorfield, founding of.

Moravian Indians.

.Morgan. John.

Morton, Oliver P..

MtRR. J. Edward, "Lincoln
in Indiana".

Murray, Rev. John.

Myers. William Starr, The
Mexican War Diary of
(Iconic H. McClellan, (Re-
view).

Natchez Trace,
Xeavins, Harvey,

391

155

92

135

60-66

22 seq.

251

192
69

68

. 83

299

76

. 77

290

38

37

20

seq.

154

82

39

349

307

-308

1

192

66

45

Negro Suffrage in the Ohio
Constitutional Convention.
1802, 136

New Purchase, The, 87

New, Robert A., 22

New Albany, 2

Newspa per. contempora ry ,
criticism on constitution of
1816. 104 seq.

Newspapers in Switzerland

county, 155

Nicola i. George K.. 2

Noble, Senator James. 102,149

Noble, Lazarus, 149

"Notes Concerning Brook-
ville. Indiana, a Century
Ago," by Amos W. Butt.ee. 146-150
Noble, Noah, 149

Noble. Winston, 64

Northern Ohio I niversa list-
Association, 2
Northwest Territory. 1

Ohio State Convention of

Universalists. 3

"Old Corydon". by Charles

Moores. 20-41

"Origin and Rise of the Re-
publican Party in Indiana
from 1854 to I860", by
Charles Zimmerman. 349-392

Otto United Brethren Church

of Frankfort. 7

Ottowas. 69, 74

Ovler, S. P., 13

Palmyra.

2

Parke. Benjamin

22. 41

Path of Nemacol

n. The,

60

Patriot Society.

14

Paul, John P..

135

Paul. Michael

and Ann

Parker.

131

Paul. Sarah

Thornbevry

Grover, wife

of Colonel

John Paul,

135

418

Index

Paul, Sarah Grover, daugh-
ter of Colouel John Paul 135
Paul's Spring, Madison, Inch, 142
Payne, Adam, 35

Pearee, Philip, 13

Pennington, Dennis,

22, 23, 29, 39,41
Petty, Rev. Charles E„ 164

Pfrimmer, Rev. George, 33

Philomath Encyclopedia and
Circle of the Sciences,
Jonathan Kidwell. 35

Philomath, (lud.). Univer-

salist Convention at, 3, 4

Picket, Heatheote, 151

"Pioneer Aristocracy", hy

Logan Esaeey, 270-287

"Pioneer Politics in Indi-
ana", hy Logan Esarey, 99-128

Pioneer religion, 273 ; educa-
tion, 273; home life, 274;
Medicine, 277 ; traditions,
278; clearings, 279; wom-
en, 280; skill, 282; super-
stition, 285

Pioneer Universalism, 1 seq.

Platforms, political, 1854,
217 seq. ; Democratic, 225 ;
Fusion, 235 ; for 1856, Peo-
ple's, 259; American, 265

Pleasant township, Switz-
erland county, 153

Political campaign from 1835

to 1840, 125 seq.

Political crisis in Indiana in
1824, 110

"Politics in Indiana, Pio-
neers, by Logan Esaeey, 99-128

Political Organization of
Jaeksonian party, 116

Popham, John, 13

Posey township, Switzerland

county, 154

Pottawattamies, 68. 74, 75, 83

Powers, Sampson, 149

Prophet, The, 24. 25. 37 seq.

Prophet's Town,
Putnam, Aaron Waldo,

67 seq.

Rappites, 1, 33

Ray, Rev. Edwin, 5

Ray, Col. John, 64

Relation between Hoosiers

and Politics, 99 seq.

"Reminiscences of the Civil
War", by Horace B. Lit-
tle, 42-55
Republican, first national

campaign, 247 seq.

Republican National conven-
tion, 1860: delegates from
Indiana, 382, 383

"Republican Party, Origin
and Rise of in Indiana",
by Charles Zimmerman, 211-269
Republican State ticket, 1860. 382
Restorationist controversy, 6

Richman, George J.. History

of Hancock County. 94

Ripley, county seat of, se-
lected, 143
Rising Sun, 2
Robinson, Rev. Elmo Arnold,
"Universalism in Indiana".

1-19; 157-188
Rogers Association, 12, 13

Rogers, Rev. George, 4, 5, 13

Roll, Charles, review of In-
diana as Seen- by Early
Travelers, by Harlow Lin-
dley, 204

Sacs, 69, 78
Sargent, Rev. Abel Morgan, 2, 4
Sargent, Capt. Winthrop, 1
Sawyer Report, 18
Schools in Switzerland coun-
ty, 154, 156
Scott, James, 22
Seigvolck, Paul ; The Ever-
lasting Gospel, 2
Sellman. Eliza, 2

Index

419

Sentinel and Star in the West, 2
"Series of Strictures", Jon-
athan Kidwell, 5
Seward, William, 390
Shamburgh, Capt. B., 2
Sharp, Horatio, 13
"Sharpe's Rifles", 254
Shawnees, 71, 75, S4, 89
Shepherd, Col. David, 62
Shepherd, Col. Moses. 62
Sidler, L. L., 5
Simpson, Bishop Matthew, 336
Slavery and John Paul, 137
Slave catchers in Monroe
county. 289

Slavery question in Ohio, 136 seq.

Smith, Edward. 31
Smith, Henry L., "The Un-
derground Railroad in
Monroe County", 288-297

Smith, Jennie. 31

Smith. Oliver H, 28
Smith, Robert, "Both Sides

of Religious Ceremonies," 6. 7

Smithson, Joshua, 170
Spencer, Spier, 22, 24,27
Spencer's Yellow Jackets. 24, 25, 27

Star in the West, 4.17
Star, The. Rev. John A. Gur-

ley, 4

State convention of 1S24, 115

Steele, General, 42

Steele. James, 45. 48
Stoner, J. A., Before and

After Winchester, 4

Stoops. David, 146

Streoter, Russell, 12

Streeter. Rev. Sebastian, 2

Strong, Fruman, 5

Stuart, William Z.. 352
Superstitions of the Pio-
neers, 335 seq.

Sweet, Leonard, 347
Switzerland county, name

and settlers. 151

Symmes, Eliza,
Symmes, John Cleves.

2
135

Tecumseh. 24, 67, 73, 134
"Tecumseh's Confederacy".

Elmore Barce, 07
Temperance, 213 ; conven-
tion, 214
Terry, Elias S., 353
Test, John, 149
Thomas, Jake, 44. 45, 48
Thomas, Jesse B.. 146
Thompson, Delos II., 174
Thompson. R. W.. 352
Tippecanoe, Battle of. 26
Tippecanoe Battleground
meeting (Whig), May 29.
1840, 126
Tipton, John, 20 seq.
Tizzard, Samuel, 3. 4
Tony, a fugitive slave. 295
Treaty of Fort Wayne. S3
Triumvirate, Hoosier, 101 seq.
Troy (Patriot) Indiana,

founded, 154

Tyner, James. 150

"Underground Railroad in
Monroe County", by Henry
Lester Smith. 288-297

"Universalism in Indiana",
Elmo Arnold Robinson,

1-19; 157-180

Universalist college, 3

Universalist debates, list of, 177

Universalist ministers of In-
diana, list of, 178 seq.

Universalist missionary
work, 158 seq., 161

Universalist seminary, 16S seq.

Upper Wabash Association, 19

Vance, Mrs. Lawrence,
Vanpelt, Hollick,
Varnum, Gen. James Mit-
chell.

64
14

420

Index

Vaughn, William, 18

Vevay, Switzerland county, 152 156
Voting, different methods of, 118

Waldo. Rev. J. C, 2, 4, G

"Wakefield", later Madison.

Ind.. 140
Wallace. Andrew, 148
Wallace. David, 148
Wallace. Lew. 148
Wallace. William Efenson, 140
Walker. John C 358
Walker, Dr. Thomas. 57
Washington, George. 57
Wayne. Gen. Anthony, 76,70
Weas. 08,83,90
Western convention, 14
Western Eagle, second news-
paper of Indiana, 141
Western Ladies'' Casket, 34
Western Olive Branch, E.

Mann, 7

Western Union Association. 3, 13

Whigs, commercial policy of, 117

Whigs, comparison with

Democrats. 1824-52. 1 16 seq.

White River Association. IS

White Water Society. 7
Whigs in campaign of 1840. 125 seq.

Whittemore, Rev. Thomas. 2,12
"Wilderness Road", Frances

Higgins, 56-59

Wilson, D. G., 14

Winamac, 75, 82

Winn, John. 3

Winnebagoes, 69

Woods. LeRoy. 350

Wyandots, 69, 76

Xenia. Ohio, founding of.

1 39

Yandes, Simon, 23

York township, Switzerland

county, 154

Young People's Christian

Union, 161

Zimmerman, Charles, "The
Origin and Rise of the Re-
publican Party in Indiana.
1854-1860". 211-269

No, 3 O I Sect.

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Over 60 Years of Indiana Bookselling

W.K.STEWARTCO.

44 E. Washington Street
INDIANAPOLIS

Complete Library Service
for Indiana Libraries

We ask your special attention to our

Dapartment of Library Furniture

We supplied the equipment for the new Indianapolis

Public Library, ail the desks, chairs, tables, charging

counters, files, etc.

May we bid on your new equipment ?

We have new ideas that will help you.

Our prices will prove as satisfactory as the quality.

1882

1W7

The Teachers College of Indianapolis

Course for
Course for
Course for
Course for
Course for
Course for
Course for
Course for

Alaba

ACCHKDITED IN CLASSES A, II AND C

Kindergartners
Elementary School Teachers
Rural and Graded School Teachers
Domestic Science Teachers
Public School Drawing Teachers
Public School Music Teachers
Experienced Teachers . «

Review of the Common Branches "'

Second Semester opens January 28, 191S.
Send for catalog,
ELIZA A. BLAK.ER, President,
ma and Twenty-third Streets, Indianapolis, Ind.

Rare Books on Indiana History for Sale

The following books have been left at this office for sale.
All are out of print, are bound in cloth and in good condition
unless otherwise stated:

O. H, Smith, Early Trials and Sketches- $3.00

•lohn B. Dillon, History of Indiana (1859) 5.00

James A. Woodburn, Higher Education in Indiana (paper) 1.00

R. G. Boone, History of Education in Indiana 2.00

Samuel Merrill, Indiana Gazetteer (1S50) 1.00

W. R. Holloway, History of Indianapolis (1870) 1.00

W. S. Blatchley, Beetles of Indiana : 3.00

Sent prepaid on receipt of price.

Addi> : :s3*lHl&v

INDIANA MAGAZINE OP HISTORY
Bloom iugton, Indiana